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White Hair and Trauma Brawl Round 1; Poll 30

remember, voting is based on swag, trauma, and favoritism!!

trauma and propaganda under the cut!

Trauma! 

Estinien: “his village was razed to the ground by a massive fuckoff dragon”

“So after his peaceful idyllic village is razed to the ground when he's a literal child, Estinien gets taken in by the Azure Dragoon, the Dragonslayer Extraordinaire who gets powers via a psychic link to the huge fuck-off dragon that razed his village, and he's like "sick, I'm gonna grow up and become a dragonslayer because I am filled with nothing but vengeance."

So he does that, literally devotes his entire life to becoming nothing more than the best dragonslayer, and when his mentor/foster father retires instead of losing his mind to psychic link with dragon, Estinien takes up the mantle. So he now has a psychic link to a huge fuck-off dragon ALSO fuelled with revenge who wants to destroy his home. He's normal about this. At one point he steals and runs away with the relic that enables this connection (one of the dragon's eyes) to try and lessen the Issues, but eventually has to return. This is where Heavensward, the expansion about the war between dragons and the city state of catholic-coded elves starts. Oh yeah, he's also catholic-coded. RIP him.

So he gets convinced to go on a roadtrip to maybe kill, maybe parlay with some dragons. He obviously has his preferences, but during the roadtrip his gang link up with Lady Iceheart (aka Ysayle, another worthy contender for this tournament tbh), one of the leaders of the pro-dragon elf faction who thinks the dragons are in the right, actually. The two argue a lot but during the roadtrip they kinda bond, and Estinien starts to learn that maybe there's more to life than being really really good at killing dragons.

Anyway, during the roadtrip they end up killing Nidhogg, the big fuckoff dragon who razed his village who he has a psychic link to. It's kinda hollow, and also the pope is evil so no time to dwell on that, they have to go kill the pope. (The pope's most loyal guard torture his best friend and kill another of his friends, it's bad out here)

On the way to go catch the pope, Ysayle ends up sacrificing herself to help the heroes not get fucking exploded by enemy airships (don't ask, it's not relevant) and this also lowkey kinda sucks hardcore for Estinien. Anyway, they discover the pope actually has Nidhogg's other eye. But they kill the pope, it's all great, Estinien has realised there's more to life than being really good at killing dragons, he's holding both the eyes and his armour is still stained with Nidhogg's blood, it's fine and -- OOPS, in his moment of calm, Nidhogg's vengeful ghost has possessed him and is now going to puppet his body to destroy any semblance of peace that could come of this victory. It's bad out here.

Highlights of the possession arc include: body horror (literally having eyes and armour fused to him), attacking his friends, his bestie nearly shooting him with an arrow, becoming a hated figure of destruction in his home city, the fact that he is conscious in there with a hate-filled vengeful dragon is full of hate and vengeance and gets to think "ah shit, he's just like me for real", more body horror (being turned into a dragonic abomination for the confrontation with his friend, the player character, in his assault on the city).

Luckily, he does survive all of this, but since he did kinda fuck some shit up in his home, his best course once he recovers is to become a wandering vagrant. He's mostly having a pretty okay time now, except that one time he got disintegrated at the edge of the universe. He got better.”

“the possession by Big Bad Dragon also exposed him to all of THAT dragon's trauma (millenia of it) including said dragon's sister being cut into pieces and eaten by his ancestors (which started the war in the first place). And his way of atoning after he was freed was to dress himself in armour she had blessed.He just keeps on adding the baggage. Getting vaporised at the end of the universe was yet another act of Fighting For The Dragons.”

Zero: A vampire hunter who was turned into a vampire because his twin brother betrayed him and let a powerful vampire kill their parents and bite Zero. He tried his best to hide the fact he was slowly becoming a vampire for a long time, both because his foster sister was afraid of them and because of his own burning hatred for their kind. He ends up being tasked to protect the secrecy of a whole class (literal academy class) of vampires from the unsuspecting human students (and vice versa), suffering all the while from his negative feelings towards them and increasingly internalized disgust at what he's becoming. He hates himself so much that he frequently starves himself and tries to off himself with his anti-vampire gun, only being pulled from the brink by the care of his foster family. Oh also he ends up consuming his twin brother. The one that betrayed him? Kinda messed up. 

Propaganda!

Estinien: “Estinien is great. He's God's Most Autistic Soldier. Canonically his only hobbies are training and "eating anything passably delicious". He once spent a ludicrous amount of money on a scrunchie. He's gone from "special interest: killing dragons" to "special interest: dragons". He is so fucking traumatised.”

“Estinien's life literally started at age 30 and he's now a hilarious mixture of Supremely Awkward and YOLO quiet hedonism he's so silent and so eager to discover the world you just cannot beat it. The Azure Dragoon.”

Zero: Classic edgy anime guy. Cold personality, guns with chains, angst up the wazoo, what more could you want? Look at his sick neck marking. 

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The symbology of the Convocation of Fourteen is just... one of my favorite details in ffxiv. And yeah, I know they have zodiac signs because Final Fantasy Tactics had zodiac signs and FF12 had zodiac signs, but 14's spin on them is inspired, and I don't think that gets enough appreciation.

Each of the Ascians is characterized to at least superficially match their sign. Emet-Selch seems like a Gemini, seemingly on both sides of every issue. Fandaniel seems like a Leo who wants to be the center of attention. Lahabrea, The Creator, seems like an artsy Pisces... just...y'know, a horrible one.

And it's not as if "terrible, messed-up version of Zodiac symbol" is new here. Tactics definitely had that already. The thing ffxiv adds to the trope is the presence of the Sun.

Azem's symbol being the sun and not a constellation tells us exactly what their role in the Convocation was supposed to be. The sun's path through the constellations is what gives all those signs their meanings. You can't be a Gemini unless the sun is in Gemini. The sun's passage through the zodiac is supposed to illuminate the best way forward. This is why Emet-Selch calls them both "Shepherd to the stars in the dark," and "Counsellor to the star's people." They're meant to inspire people to become their best selves. This is inadvertently what WoL does in numerous places and times across the game, (and one of the ancients in Elpis even comments on it) because apparently repeatedly dying at the hands of their coworkers and friends for eons did not get them out of having to do their job.

When the sun protested their unspeakbly terrible plan, they went all in on their hubris by casting it down forever. They never replaced Azem. They don't even want to remember they ever had a sun. They don't have the light that illuminates their best selves, their better future. So they can't find it anymore. They don't know how to be themselves anymore, in Azem's absence. In Elidibus' case, literally. He is so desperate for the guiding star he can't even remember having, that he constantly, instinctively, seeks out Azem in different forms. Wearing Ardbert's corpse, and wandering up to WoL for awkward chats, and looking back to the heroes of the past who were definitely Azem shards.

The sun, torn from the heavens, leads to the maker's ruin.

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S H E

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ukonvasara | gae bolg The thunderhead axe and the seven-headed spear.

Preorders for these two will open on 11/29.

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Based on this post.

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the invasion of tural going like

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Let's talk about Zoraal Ja.

So early on in Dawntrail, shortly after Krile's first Echo off of Zoraal Ja, I was like, we are going to find out there is something fucked up happening to this guy. Maybe there's actually an Ascian in there purposefully fucking things up, or whoever the big bad of the expansion turns out to be rewired his head somehow, or, you know, some flavour of brain fuckery.

But as we go through the story and ultimately see him at his defeat, no, nothing so extreme as all that. He seems to be just Like That, and I thought it odd. By all accounts, it seemed he must have been raised okay. Gulool Ja Ja seems to have been an alright father figure, good enough to have raised two other kids into decent adults. They have their own sets of issues, but nobody's perfect, and they both do a good job course correcting for their shortcomings.

What the hell happened with Zoraal Ja? Why did he turn out the way he did?

Gulool Ja Ja is a blessed sibling, which we are not just told are exceedingly rare - we are shown so, explicitly, and we learn what the cost of a blessed sibling is to the Mamool Ja. A cost that their people bore in order to try to better their lot and win a war against the Xbr'aal. Gulool Ja Ja did not so much win their war as much as he simply ended it, bringing peace to both peoples.

That peace is simply, however, not that old. When we visit Iq Br'aax, we slowly learn the story of how that peace came to be, but throughout it, I could not help but notice that we were only getting one side of the story. The celebrated meal of Xibruq Pibil was meant to be a symbol of bringing peoples who were historically enemies together, but where were the Mamool Ja to share it with? And why did none of the Mamool Ja present seem to know how to create the recipe?

There is a peace, but here we see that it is a flawed peace. In the side quests, you learn that trade happens between the Mamool Ja and the Xbr'aal, but only in secret. The younger generation knows peace, but the older generation is still cagey about the not all that distant history with their neighbors in the forest.

And so the Mamool Ja still continue their practice of enduring the terrible loss of so many stillbirths in an attempt to create more blessed siblings. Their culture, especially the remnant that chooses to remain in the forest, is still trying to make its place in the larger world and improve their lot. They are still living in a land that makes for harsh conditions for living.

And in this we see a few things. One, Gulool Ja Ja is not perfect. He did a good job, but not a great one. The work of peace is going to need to be an ongoing project. And two, I believe it sets the foundation for why Zoraal Ja is the way he is.

He was not raised in Mamook, but he is still Mamool Ja. And like Gulool Ja Ja, he is a miracle. The trueblood son of a blessed sibling, who were long believed to be sterile. We don't know anything about his mother, and I suspect she had little influence on his life. But judging from the way the fight against him goes, and the visions we see of the people in his life, he may not have had a mother, singular, but I think he definitely had nursemaids.

And they certainly remembered what life was like in Mamook. And that history is not so old. And so early on, he is told he is special. He is told he is destined for great things. And probably, at least a little bit, there are whispers of how he might surpass his father one day.

The seed of a terrible imposter syndrome is planted.

And none of what happens requires Gulool Ja Ja to be a bad parent. In fact, I think what we get is the result of him trying to be a good parent. It seems likely he probably met his kids where they were at, encouraged their interests, and let them be who they wanted to be. Wuk Lamat probably sparred with him, and certainly got his sociable, outgoing tendencies. Koana, quiet Koana, I like to imagine he expressed an interest in sciences, and knowledge, and Gulool Ja Ja probably made sure he had the best tutors, and when the time came, made sure he had a good send off to Old Sharlayan.

And quiet, taciturn Zoraal Ja who rarely speaks. I can imagine Gulool Ja Ja let his son keep his peace. He probably assumed his son wanted his space, and left him to it. And Zoraal Ja, the miracle, watched his father. His father's living accomplishment was peace in Tural. Zoraal Ja will bring peace to the entire star. Gulool Ja Ja loves a good fight, enough that he challenges people to come to the palace and face him. Zoraal Ja will be a better fighter than his father. Gulool Ja Ja was a leader. Zoraal Ja is the leader of the Landsguard, and will succeed his father as Dawnservant.

It's interesting, I think, to compare and contrast Zoraal Ja with Bakool Ja Ja, who are more alike than they are different. Both are miracle children, both are impossible children. The Mamool Ja thought that a child born of Hoobigo and Boonewa was impossible - until the birth of the first blessed sibling. And they also believed a blessed sibling, in turn, was sterile - until the birth of Zoraal Ja, the miracle.

And both of them, I think, are carrying the weight of their people with them. Bakool Ja Ja explicitly, but I don't think Zoraal Ja got to escape it just because he was raised in Tuliyollal instead of Mamook. Even if the aforementioned nursemaids did not explicitly put the idea in his head that he might be the future of the Mamool Ja, he is not an idiot. They definitely told him he was a miracle, destined for great things.

And absent guidance from his father, who probably just wanted him to be his own person, he decided for himself what those great things would be.

Zoraal Ja is intent on completing them alone - to his ultimate detriment, in the trial in Mamook.

And while they are so very similar, the difference between Bakool Ja Ja and Zoraal Ja is that Bakool Ja Ja not only never wanted this, but he was eventually offered a path out. A way to be free of the yoke of the responsibilities his culture put upon him before he was ever even born. But Zoraal Ja never got that chance, because his burdens were not being forced upon him. He took them upon himself.

And he carried them until his death.

In the end, Gulool Ja Ja was probably a decent father, but not the right kind of father for Zoraal Ja. Zoraal Ja's ambition was born of a terrible inferiority complex that he nursed until it festered and swallowed him whole. He could have found his own freedom, but he could not see it past the shadow of his own father, who he was obsessed with eclipsing.

And so we're left with this. Zoraal Ja died in a completely avoidable tragedy of his own making.

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i like it when he

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Otis and Gulool Ja from Final Fantasy 14 I would die for this child for real

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it wont wash off

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FFXIV Dawntrail CG Promotional art

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warmup comic

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i've experienced two hours of Dawntrail and my only note so far is that they HAVE to stop making estinien so fucking funny every expansion

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LOVE THE MAMOOL JA BABY!!!!

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HAPPY DAWNTRAIL!!!! I love this expansion so much already!!! Its so gooood

I also recently started watching Gundam wing and holy shit

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my DT experience so far

Why is he so beautiful