nakovesh

[nakovesh]

god I haven't mentioned it enough here. Myths of the Realm is my enemy. easily my least favorite 24-man- or rather it's my least favorite raid series of either type.

probably made worse by pandaemonium being genuinely very good? the contrast was stark.

weak answer to the question of the twelve's nature, very unambitious and mediocre visual designs that were largely too married to visual fidelity to boring statues and card designs. some real disney's hercules shit. there were some innovative or appealing elements here and there: nald'thal was genuinely great visually and conceptually, I actually respect the concept of making menphina a magical girl instead of a generically hotsexy love goddess, byregot's halo of nails, uh... the models for thalaos and perykos looked good? but overall they were a bunch of very boring idealized humans.

and my god eulogia is the ugliest thing. eulogia might actually be the most hideous execution of a concept in the game yet, you might as well just clip all of the models of the twelve into each other and play their animations at once and get the same effect. zero elegance, zero thoughtful design. it's actually shocking to see in a game where we got perfect omega as a raid boss once upon a time. even eden's promise, while superficially a hot mess, is a hot mess because it pays homage to extant depictions of artemis! art history is why it looks like that! eulogia looks like the artists were asked to recreate knife dad from monster factory using ffxiv assets.

and you might ask, well, are the mechanics of the fights better than the boss designs? absolutely not. week one aglaia was a little fun, because there being a chance of failure to people not knowing the trick of the meteors in the rhalgr fight or panicking during the nald'thal scales instead of just deliberately failing the mechanic to waste everyone's time. gear creep destroyed any chance of interacting with most of the fun bits of aglaia, and they didn't repeat that "mistake" in the other two, which were boring and easy from the jump. just an absolute void of challenge or chaos. why even bother putting mechanics into your raid at that point, apparently that's only for savage.

and the rewards... boy I hope you like ugly yellow-gold saint seiya armor and generic draping faux-hellenistic robes and vague suggestions of togas. I hope you fucking gluttons for endless less-problematic rehashes of ancient greek mythology like gaudy costume jewelry and sandals and meaningless neoclassical flourishes. did you want gear that might look like something your character would wear in a city they've visited or that has a connection to a historical aesthetic? I guess if you make believe you can stretch a tenuous bond from this tacky armor to the uniform robes and masks of the ancients. ostensibly. since we all know the ancients didn't have a societal taboo about ornamentation or making your clothes individualized or anything.

so what did we achieve? did we learn anything? turns out the twelve were real all along, but also powerless except in the specific context of having flashy anime duels with the warrior of light. it's VERY important that we say they aren't primals, because primals are only summoned by primitive subhumans like the ixal and the garleans. but we do need you to fight them to return their aether to the star because... they're definitely not primals! no. not primals. primals are fake gods, and the twelve are *aetheric constructs* based on *real people* made by *hydaelyn*, which means they're good and Not Primals. the mechanic by which they visually reflect the beliefs of their followers? definitely not the same as the one that does that for primals. their nebulous dependence on the faith of eorzeans? totally unrelated to primals, because it's apparently important for the ego of the players that *their* god is real and not fake, which makes them ontologically good and righteous.

and it's definitely satisfying to find out that the goddess whose name gave weight and gravity to the reveal of the warrior of light's past incarnation and their name... is called that because she was a failed candidate for that role? she's a consolation prize sun goddess?

for that matter it's definitely satisfying to find out that the twelve are just recreations of venat's boring ancient friends, who are largely nameless and have no significance to you or your interaction with the past aside from a mediocre sidequest. oh it's so thrilling to know that the god of crafting used to be hytholdaeus's coworker. this would mean so much to me if he had any role in the setting beyond a skill name and a rock sitting in an overworld zone.

admittedly it would also suck for the reveal to be "actually eorzea's gods did create the world and are all-powerful, boy it sure is silly that those delusional foreigners are out here worshipping kami and manusya and mrga and primals which are all FAKE, as opposed to us (non-beastman) eorzeans who have the literal mandate of heaven"

but surely there's a more elegant solution (ambiguity, leaving questions instead of a glut of answers, not making this raid series at all). was this really the best they could come up with?

[nakovesh]

me complaining under the cut.

i was trying to think how i could re-frame the general story of dawntrail without actually changing wuk lamat, and i think i realized how that could be accomplished.

this xpack is presented as the WoL taking a break and sliding away from center stage, but that's not actually how it plays out. instead we're party to some pretty insane things going on in front of us, without actually being about to do something about it. not because we're "taking a vacation" but because... because??? there's no explanation within the narrative. and that's very frustrating.

if i had the chance to rewrite this xpack, i would frame it like so:

we'd be traveling primarily with the "older" scions ("old" by modern japanese storytelling standards, so you know, 30s, practically in the grave, fucking ancient and decrepit), thancred, y'shtola, and urianger maybe. we follow wuk lamat with bemusement and genuine admiration of her country, with small asides from our companions about how she reminds them of a younger version of someone they know. we establish that we're here to help, but we're taking up the second line. this isn't our land, it isn't our culture, we're here to advise and learn.

we learn about gulool ja ja's adventure. a scion brings up how similar that is to an eorzean crew of legend, the company of heroes. perhaps you'd get some special dialogue if you did their quests in endwalker.

finally, wuk lamat comes to her first big emotional leader moment. does she think about it, or does she rush in to fight? well, she's young and she's wuk lamat, so she rushes in. the WoL is visibly worried, out of instinct they begin to move to either join her or intercept. but there's a hand on the WoL's shoulder that gives them pause. it's thancred with a wry smile. he shakes his head.

"you think i haven't wanted to rush in a hundred times since we met all that time ago? i learned long ago to trust your instincts, and even if you do make a mistake, you've always learned from it. let wuk lamat do the same."

or something to that effect. but i think this frames some of wuk lamat's harebrained behavior in a more charitable light, while justifying our passive role in this new story. as we go on, maybe the WoL realizes they won't be around forever. perhaps they realize it's time to take a mentor role as much as they can and prepare others to take their place. if you've been playing since ARR, you're much older now yourself, aren't you? think about how much you've changed along with the WoL in all that time. i think it could be a very heartwarming realization.

instead we have... well, this... stuff.

on the other hand solution nine is absolutely unfix-able and i'm just going to pretend it never happened. lmao

[nakovesh]

it’s been 14 years….

and this is the third seeker settlement with their own aetheryte and 0 keeper. why fucking make two clans if you’re going to ignore one??? CONTINUALLY lmao

[nakovesh]

Something something misdirected rage.

[nakovesh]

Everytime a new NPC outfit is released on the store.

[nakovesh]

Wistmans by Neil Burnell

[nakovesh]

I’m not mad because I think Menphina’s design isn’t “sexy” enough. I don’t care. The goddess of love doesn’t need to be sexy, there’s a million other aspects to a concept like love. I was actually hoping she’d have a far more subdued design in keeping with her description as a scullery maid. I’m mad because she looks like nightmare fuel, and not in a cool way. I’m not surprised, but weary over another missed chance to have a lil Keeper love in there, too. I’m confused as to why she has a mechanical arm, though it’s the part of her design I’m least annoyed with. I’m confused as to why the Hound is there since Dalamud was an artificial construct and not a true moon.

I realize I had astronomical expectations for her but....

most of all WHERE IS HER FUCKING FRYING PAN, SE????

[nakovesh]

And Ishgard (welcome, filthy heretics) o/

[nakovesh]

more of... ♡☆♡him♡☆♡

[nakovesh]

The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak

[nakovesh]

Severe lack of smugness in my art lately, so I drew Nero lmao

Messed around with perspective grids and some ways of quick coloring.

[nakovesh]

with hearts aligned

[nakovesh]

Florence, Oregon, 2020

[nakovesh]

[nakovesh]

[nakovesh]

Atmospheric mood

[nakovesh]

tarot done for an auction winner !

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