[SPOILER]Absence of certain things in the ending slides.

[The Liquor]

Finally finished the game for the first time. While I was mostly okay with the endings I got, it mildly confused me that neither the gods, nor the effects of the Wheel now being broken on the peoples of Eora were mentioned.

After the last conversation with the Gods, I expected the ending to mention something like factions being formed and battle lines being drawn between the gods, and their various organizations of fanatics gearing up for war.

And regarding the kith and the Wheel: no one seems to panic, and besides animancers and scholars making breakthroughs courtesy of Eothas' inspiration, there doesn't seem to be any great effort happening. Except the Huana and the Rauataians fighting over Ukaizo and the VTC profiting from the conflict, the state of the world post-Eothas isn't mentioned at all. Wasn't a central point to Eothas' plan that everyone immediately would have knowledge about what he'd done to the Wheel and the nature of the Gods?

[DozingDragon]

Some of this is cleared up with Woedica’s book and the additions to the conversation with Eothas at Ukaizo. 

According to Woedica, the gods generally put on a big show of presenting differing viewpoints when they are in front of the Watcher, but in fact they are generally on the same page. Her goal is to convince the gods to rally behind her solution of once again directly intervening in the affairs of mortals, but that decision seems to be tabled for now. 

And the reason that decision seems to be tabled is probably also the reason why no one is freaking out about the Wheel being broken: according to Eothas, the effects of the breaking of the Wheel will not be that noticeable for a generation or so. Eothas has set in motion a massive crisis, but it will take some time before it becomes very obvious.

One possible out for the writers in a potential sequel to escalate the conflict without jumping too far ahead in time would be to focus on all the side effects caused by all the souls trapped in the In-between, as that will likely cause massive blights and who knows what else. 

[The Liquor]

4 hours ago, DozingDragon said:

And the reason that decision seems to be tabled is probably also the reason why no one is freaking out about the Wheel being broken: according to Eothas, the effects of the breaking of the Wheel will not be that noticeable for a generation or so. Eothas has set in motion a massive crisis, but it will take some time before it becomes very obvious.

Isn't that a massive flaw, if not an outright inconsistency, in Eothas' plan? He wanted to break the Wheel to force kith to cooperate, and he wanted to expose the artificial nature of the gods to the whole world. But the status quo after PoE 2 seems to be that kithkind (is that a thing? ) will only take notice of the Wheel being broken when massive numbers of Hollowborn start to appear, so when it's already almost too late, and no one seems to know about the nature of the gods either, at least the ending slides do not mention it. The only people who seem to know what's going on are the Watcher and friends. But the Watcher and co. already knew about the gods since PoE1, and their knowledge does not seem to have spread. So either Eothas' great effort did achieve exactly nothing, or there's vital information missing in the ending slides.

I mean, the fact that Eothas is able to inspire animancers and scholars all across the world is proof that he was able to influence the minds of kith on a global scale. Why didn't he plant the knowledge about what happened on Ukaizo in the minds of kith worldwide? Even if his power was not enough to influence everyone, he could've at least "enlightened" the rulers and important figures of Eora. That would've made his plan work immediately.

[DozingDragon]

I do not think Eothas’s plan was fruitless, as he intended to engineer an existential problem that the gods could not just paper over through their agents like the Leaden Key or the Hand Occult. So the nature of the gods will be revealed by the consequences of Eothas’s actions rather than a proclamation via Eothas. Eothas explained that he did not want to simply reveal the nature of the gods during the Saint’s War because he thought it would be too easy to socially engineer a coverup. And as seen in the Forgotten Sanctum, Eothas might have a point because the Hand Occult seems to have the ability to literally remove individuals from history. 

Plus, every major faction in the Deadfire learned of Eothas’s plan for the Wheel after the Watcher returned from Magran’s Teeth, so word will get out even if the effects are less pronounced at first. 

Not that I necessarily love this particular plot. I think it was an odd choice to spend an entire game setting up apocalyptic stakes rather than just diving straight into a worldwide hollowborn crisis. And yes, I think the slides could have been clearer, but the developers also added in extra voiced content to answer these questions.

Edited June 17, 2019 by DozingDragon

[Wormerine]

On 6/17/2019 at 6:58 PM, DozingDragon said:

One possible out for the writers in a potential sequel to escalate the conflict without jumping too far ahead in time would be to focus on all the side effects caused by all the souls trapped in the In-between, as that will likely cause massive blights and who knows what else. 

Who knew that PoE was a secret prequel to Jade Empire all along. 

[IamNOOB]

On 6/18/2019 at 12:39 AM, The Liquor said:

Isn't that a massive flaw, if not an outright inconsistency, in Eothas' plan? He wanted to break the Wheel to force kith to cooperate, and he wanted to expose the artificial nature of the gods to the whole world. But the status quo after PoE 2 seems to be that kithkind (is that a thing? ) will only take notice of the Wheel being broken when massive numbers of Hollowborn start to appear, so when it's already almost too late, and no one seems to know about the nature of the gods either, at least the ending slides do not mention it. The only people who seem to know what's going on are the Watcher and friends. But the Watcher and co. already knew about the gods since PoE1, and their knowledge does not seem to have spread. So either Eothas' great effort did achieve exactly nothing, or there's vital information missing in the ending slides.

I mean, the fact that Eothas is able to inspire animancers and scholars all across the world is proof that he was able to influence the minds of kith on a global scale. Why didn't he plant the knowledge about what happened on Ukaizo in the minds of kith worldwide? Even if his power was not enough to influence everyone, he could've at least "enlightened" the rulers and important figures of Eora. That would've made his plan work immediately.

 On the ONE HAND , what you wrote IS TRUE, but on the other hand - it is not , the world of PoE II is kind of strange and complex. And this is why WE LOVE IT ! 

 

The idea of deep changes and enlightenment is very nice and this is what Eothas wants BUT it cannot happen in several days. I agree that in such an age where these guys just do not have computers or even telephones - things are going forward slowly ! And not to mention - the Watcher might say what he saw BUT MANY might not believe him or might not take his words seriously. People / kith are kind of limited in their thinking, not talking about smart ones like Aloth or Eder - and they are also a product of society. This society cannot change so quickly and even if the script writer wanted to - well, it would seem idiotic to say in a slide at the end something like "The whole world was shocked when they understood the truth " ... This is not the style of PoE II in my opinion. And also - Eothas did not use telepathic magic to talk to all the people worldwide , as he wishes a more natural development of the kith, even if he brutally intervened. In other words - what Eothas did is the beginning of the end of an era.