they learned they could just completely abandon having to care about the source as a place and constantly fuck off to alt-universes to not have to worry about it

This is the exact reason why I hate the concept of the Shards and everyone I speak with calls me crazy. "Oh it's a whole new world with new cultures, what isn't to love?" EVERYTHING IT'S NOT THE SOURCE I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS ANYWHERE BUT THE SOURCE

The cultures? Irrelevant Stories? Don't matter cause they won't be relevant to the Source. The characters? I'll forget them cause they ain't ever present. It's just a cop out to not engage with the world we've spent a decade immersing ourselves in.

Yeah the shards are just a shortcut to disregard the ongoing narrative to tell a completely disconnected story. If they want that I'd rather just have stand-alone episodic adventures in the source than this crap.

Yup…..