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as we all know, the WoL is very stoic, always with this serious face on - yet Haurchefant praises their smile with his dying breath, meaning they must have smiled around him at some time.

and in that same scene we see the WoL with the most complex expression they've ever shown on screen: shock transforming into a close-lipped smile but with eyes seeming to be on the verge of tears.

In that way Haurchefant, the man who loved the Warrior of Light's smile more than anyone, is also the one responsible for them learning how to cry.

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sometimes I like to reframe the finale of Shadowbringers not as "descend into the villain's lair to confront him" but "attend a theater production at a stage in the depths of the ocean". and the battle with Emet-selch not "stalwart hero triumphantly defeats evil sorcerer" but "dying wanderer reminds grieving old man he can never go home". ShB plays with ideas of hero and villain so much that it feels natural to break things out of the framework of heroic battles and victories

I do like to think of rescuing the Exarch as a fairy-tale-like "save the fair maiden from the grasp of the evil sorcerer and carry her back to the tower (not the way it usually goes, typically maidens are rescued from magic towers), where you then live happily-ever-after together" though

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watching Frieren makes me want to draw my caster main WoL doing cool wizard stuff

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memories of Stormblood: Once More, to the Ruby Sea

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memories of Stormblood: The Fires Fade

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memories of Stormblood: In Crimson it Began

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memories of Stormblood: crossing the peaks of Gyr Abania

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assorted doodles of my alt WoL as he makes his way through Stormblood. Both of his main glams have pretty deep Vs so I would say StB is his tits-out era except unfortunately he has no tits.

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a storm rises in the east, a storm of fire and blood

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Beyond the far edge of fate...

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I don't know how everyone else thinks, but I'll always understand the Ascians through the lens that if the roles were reversed, if the Source was the world destroyed and we had to erase the Shards to bring it back - my WoL would have done so without hesitation. Being a kind-hearted person, he'd feel absolutely terrible about it and shed more tears over it than Emet-selch ever would, but he'd still do so. No burden is too great to bear, and no sin too terrible, for the sake of the star you love - ultimately, that's what being a "hero" comes down to.

Were the Ascians "justified" in destroying Shards to bring back their home? Yes, equally as "justified" as we were in killing the Ascians in order to protect our homes. We're both righteous heroes, and we're both black-hearted villains.

Or rather, good and evil are completely irrelevant to a battle for survival. The truth is that whoever walks away alive will decide what, if anything, the battle meant.

The Ascians could not let go and move on from the past, and chose to try to strangle the present and the future because they thought they could go back. The WoL and the Scions chose to embrace the broken present instead, but also accept Emet-selch's last words and try to remember and honor the past while also not being bound by it while moving on to the future.

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one time in my Trials roulettes I was with a Gunbreaker who used Superbolide. every time it was off cooldown. One of my biggest regrets to this day is that I did not have enough time to tell them to stop doing that

to make matters worse one of the healers for that party was a Hermes cosplayer and we all know what happens when Hermes gets stressed and panicked. so if the Final Days happens again sorry guys this time it's my fault

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I also love to think of it like "the WoL's existence as a hero is a stable time loop." Let me try to explain -

Early ARR, you receive Hydaelyn's blessing, and that enables you to fight Primals and through that, become a hero. Many WoLs might struggle with their destiny and all the glory and suffering it entails - I know mine sure as hell did - but by the time they reach Endwalker they've proven themselves as a hero dozens of times over through their deeds.

Then you go back in time and meet Venat on Elpis, and learn that Hydaelyn didn't choose you because of some sort of high-minded goddess reasons too complex for mere mortals to understand, it was because of the brief adventure you shared together in Elpis and Ktsisis. Just from that, from the hero you were then, you proved that you were both worthy and capable of shouldering the burden of hope.

It's really amazing to me how Endwalker made both me and my WoL (and probably no shortage of others) do such a heel-face turn in opinions on Venat and Hydaelyn. From resenting Hydaelyn's choice to finally being proud of being a Warrior of Light in my WoL's case, and from thinking of Hydaelyn as just a dull plot device to finding the character of Venat to be one of the best writing choices FF14 has made in my case.

all of the stuff I've said about the WoL's suffering and dehumanization as a result of being chosen as Hydaelyn's champion, but also the fact that Venat does truly, deeply care about them.

Everything you've gone through, good and bad alike, does serve a higher purpose. But She didn't choose you just to forge you into a living weapon, but to make a perfect counterargument against the Endsinger's nihilism, against despair itself. You are the answer.

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in honor of clearing Stormblood the second time here's the time I tried to redraw the Shinryu fight from memory shortly after clearing it the first time

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I'm seemingly within a few quests of clearing my alt replay of Stormblood, but I have to hold myself back from mentally penning some sort of Stormblood defense post because if I'm arguing in my brain the whole time I won't be able to focus on actually. playing the game

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I think something the fandom forgets a lot when we meme on Zenos is that he's not just a big dumb brute - well he is big and violent that's for sure, but he ain't stupid!

even if he doesn't understand the people around him and their motivations like he says in his last words in EW, he can at least read Yotsuyu, Fordola, and Asahi well enough to manipulate them with barely any effort on his part - strengthening Fordola's loyalty to him by giving her more of the power she craves, for example. And the scene where he blows up Specula Imperatorius, his own military installation, to strike against the Alliance shows that he can be a clever and ruthless strategist.

heck, he's shown to be good enough at war that he probably could have held on to Ala Mhigo for the Empire if he wanted to, it's just that he didn't want to and would rather use it as bait to hunt the WoL.

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What I saw at the end of the universe was -

-a light that existed only for me.