Is it just me, or did the 3.4 story just kinda... hand-waive Reed's concerns at the end?
I just finished the 3.4 story. It was pretty good; some pacing issues, but the character interactions were solid and the writing was overall a decent version of this relatively popular/common story. However, the epilogue kinda left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
Like, I get that the moral of the story is that you have to make the most of the time you have and live in the moment, and that's all well and good. But, like, Reed's speech to Rén (disguised as Heron) was legitimately valid to me and I feel like she got kinda shafted?? Maybe I'm more taken aback by it because Reed and Mayfly were my favorite characters in the story so I'm invested in them the most but it really felt like the writers kinda drove themselves into a corner between making Reed have real concerns about her lifespan and also wanting to send the message about making the most of the time you have even if it's not that long. I wouldn't really have a problem with it if the game portrayed it as this melancholic moment where Reed realizes that she won't be able to extend her lifespan, but instead you have Reed having this drive to lengthen her life in one scene, then immediately after she's like, "eh, oh well, I hope the Reed that comes after me will enjoy these stories!" This was REALLY jarring and really felt like they had to downplay her concerns/reaction to lighten the serious and legitimate "ethical" questions about a Yao's life. Like, obviously Rén was mostly just in it for herself, but I was actually kinda rooting for her students at times lmao
I dunno, to me it just felt like they wanted to make the story end on a happy note but in doing so it felt like they kinda only made it happy for Heron and (possibly) Chéng while Reed didn't actually get anything out of this other than her story. She was legitimately correct in how her "self" will be lost for good even after she's "reborn" and how these short lifespans (compared to humans) are totally unfair. It's actually very similar to the questions about Blades in Xenoblade 2, but I think that game handled it better. I guess it's possible that they can address this later in a future story/anecdote but something about the ending tells me that they won't. Maybe it was the pacing of all this happening in the same chapter making me feel this way, but I dunno... it seems like a hand-waive or downplay of an actually interesting and important lore question and as a Reed enjoyer that makes me sad.
I'm just rambling at this point; just wanted to vent this lmao. Thanks for reading!!