#Emet-Selch was an excellent antagonist

[okami-zero]

*finishes The Dying Gasp*

...wow...

...the axe...

"Remember us"...

Fuck, who's cutting onions in my room, dammit...

[avauntus]

I was recently lured back to Final Fantasy XIV by their “returner” campaign (if you are away a while, log in and play for free for two weeks). I’ve been having a great deal of fun, got over my “healing yips” and jumped into group content, and finished the Shadowbringers main “5.0″ storyline.

(Yes, it made me cry. Yes, like everyone else-- I concede it is excellent as everyone says.)

Final Fantasy games always kind of...”wink and nod” at their series traditions. And thus I’ve been happily playing along (when I’m not sobbing, natch), running across the occasional call-back to threads I know from earlier in the series, going “Oh, that’s cute. That’s clever,” and not thinking too hard...until the most recent breadcrumb dialogue line for the continuation of the story (patch 5.1) made me put down my controller, put my head in my hands, and go “Aaaaaargh!”

Urianger in brief: “I think I’ll be a problem ON PURPOSE.” lol.

Theory overthinking hours! I can come back later and see if I was right. 

SPOILERS, after the cut, for Shadowbringers through 5.0 and, uh...Final Fantasies 3/6, 7, 10, and 12. (lol)

One of the very, very clever things Shadowbringers did is finish up much of the story of the Umbral Calamities by retconing the existence of the FFXIV storyline as taking place and/or belonging to the same universe of every single other Final Fantasy game all at once, many worlds existing side-by-side ignorant of each other, each just sliightly different from the next.

Which means all those “clever callbacks” aren’t just fun Easter eggs for fans-- they’re also fair game for the plot. If the game isn’t just being goofy, it’s leaning really hard into the Final Fantasy tradition of the “Oh NO Statues.” 😆

The what now?

The “Oh NO Statues” are my mental nickname for the recurring powerful, often sentient monuments that show up in Final Fantasy and invariably break the world:

 Kefka did a number on home values with these three in FFVI, for example.

Later Final Fantasy games would refine and riff on this, of course. “Oh no, the statue is a space alien (?)” (Jenova, FFVII); “Oh no, the statue came to life and destroyed our civilization!” (Sin, FFX).

This isn’t Zanarkand, but it totally could be, right?

And my personal favorite of the “Oh NO Statues” incarnations, The Occuria, FFXII. Statues who aim “guide the History of Man,” ancient beings who manifest as aetheric masked forms, often visible only to a few, whose origins are (in FFXII) unknown:

Balthier: This creature... So this is your Venat?

Cid: Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca! Just how far will you go for power? Does your lust for nethicite consume you? Am I right? I am, aren't I. A worthy daughter of the Dynast-King! You would do well to go to Giruvegan. Who knows? You may receive a new Stone for your trouble.

Ashe: Your words mean nothing to me!

Cid: The reins of History back in the hands of Man.

And later:

Cid: To hell with the Occuria and their stones! What good a power that cannot be harnessed? Baubles best-suited for study, no more.

Vayne: We conquered two kingdoms, that you might study these "baubles."

Cid: Oh, I am grateful for the sacrifice. Without it, manufacted nethicite would have eluded us - an unrivaled weapon. Tell me, Venat. Have I not been an apt pupil?

Venat: My counsel did but guide your able hand. Through power of Man, the Stones did you perfect. Yes. So much accomplished in six fleeting years. Man's fervor o'er all obstacles prevailing.

Cid: Our lives are much too short. You undying might waste long centuries away, but we, I fear, cannot.

Vayne: Just so. Had we more time, we might have used more "prudent" measures.

Cid: Your greatest work still lies before you. Not lightly will the Occuria allow you to wrest the reins of History from their grasp.

Venat: Indeed. What claim does Gerun have on history's reins... seated on throne immortal, rent from time? For your ascendance, Vayne, I offer prayer. May you attain all that which is your due.

Vayne: Attain it I shall.

This is... fascinating, because it is heavily implied by a different storyline in FFXIV that Ivalice and the events of FFXII, exist somewhere in the worlds that were shattered from the Source that was FFXIV’s ‘main world.’ There is even an Ivalice in FFXIV, but it is NOT the one we know from FFXII-- Fran exists in FFXIV as a general of Dalmasca, and to all appearances (that I’ve seen, so far), a key difference is Balthier never existed, or never left his position in the Empire.

(On realizing this, I took a good minute to be amused that Balthier really WAS the “leading man” as he so often trumpeted, that apparently so much depended on his existing in his bravura sky piratery, all unknowing-- bless.)    

As Ivalice exists -- well, the ‘Occuria’ are much like Emet-Selch and the other Ascians, aren’t they? “...seated on throne immortal, rent from time...” indeed.

Of course, in FFXIV, we’ve struck down most of the “relevant” Ascians by the end of Shadowbringers so what then? Almost certainly, the last “sane” one is gone. 

But what’s interesting to me is this: Emet-Selch asked us to remember his people, and he mentions the three Ascians we know as antagonists-- but every single time he talked about his “purpose” it wasn’t to save the named Ascians. It was to save some unnamed other or others, his “lost friends and loves”-- one of which is heavily implied to be connected to the player character. 

(There’s a whole “fragments of a shredded soul thing,” but-- ‘we don’t have time to get into that’ meme-- here.)

The other-other Ascian that is eluded to --heavily-- in the run-up to the end of Shadowbringers 5.0 is the Unnamed Fourteenth-- the Paragon who turned away from the other Ascian councilmembers when the details of their plan to save their civilization and the toll that would be paid were revealed. I think we’re meant to think this conscientious objector is the one who summoned the Light, to grant autonomy to mortals rather than guide them towards a destiny that would serve the Ascians’ return, even if the mortals were “shadows” of what had come before the worlds were split.

Beyond a lot of breadcrumbs, we don’t get much more than that in the ending bit of 5.0, but that sure sounds like Venat to me.

Venat was always portrayed by a woman voice actor, despite the Occuria being “genderless,” and...

OK, so...what does this have to do with nethicite?

In FFXIV, “manufactured nethicite” exists -- it’s called White Nethicite Auricite (oops!) and the Scions (the faction our character belongs to) use it to trap Ascians’ will and shatter their energies.

It’s also heavily implied that if natural auracite is allowed to feed on mortal souls and imbued with aether (energy), it will cause mortals to go insane. The Ivalice raid sequence spells all this out, but in short-- your fears and desires are made manifest in exchange for your life energy. Over time, auracite exposed to mortals gains a low-level chaotic will of its own, like the One Ring in Tolkien’s works.

It is, in short, a staggeringly insane idea to propose putting your soul into a soul-eating crystal as Urianger is doing. And Urianger has no way of knowing this, of course, but this will of the nethicite in FFXII came from the Occuria -- their tools to “guide the History of Man.”

There are no more unsundered Ascians left worth mentioning (Elidibius, lol), but the energy of that Unnamed Fourteenth is out there scattered in the Light-- and this is “White [light] Auracite.” Despite everything, I don’t know that the Light are all sunshine and rainbows for mortals. For one, they like stability. 

If the Scions start unknowingly imbuing themselves with the powers of Ascians by merging themselves with insane immortal chaos crystals (!!), they may manage to bring about the Eight Umbral Calamity and the end of civilization anyway by unbalancing the world(s) themselves.

...Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants for Emet-Selch? I mean, if the main character hadn’t had to put him out of his misery already. (*sob*) 

[elfyourmother]

for the character meme: Emet Selch !

How I feel about this character:

Favorite antagonist in XIV and objectively in the conversation for best in the entire FF franchise. Emet is just a deeply fascinating character and honest to god the best part about ShB for me, it’s not even close. It’s not just that he’s gorgeous and witty and a charming little shit when he wants to be. It’s also that I love those characters with layers and layers to dig into and Emet’s one in spades. He literally carries his grief on his back.

This is the real reason why I think DRK was the poster job for ShB besides the blindingly obvious surface reason: the deep parallels between Emet’s story and the DRK quests, but specifically the SB arc with Myste. And considering the same writer is responsible for both, I absolutely believe it was on purpose. Every awful thing Emet ever did, he did for love—I always read him as the very first Dark Knight, and the quintessential one at that. But he could not get to that place of acceptance that Gisele did with Esteem’s help, imo bc he was tempered and it would have run contrary to Zodiark’s purpose.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Gisele first and foremost, obviously. I could go on and on about it, and have before, but the truth is he’s as excellent a foil for her as Ysayle was. And in a lot of ways, Emet’s like bad end Gisele—like I said, everything he’s done has been driven by love, and both of them are prone to playing 4D chess to get the results they want. They were just playing it with each other on the First, and they both realized it fairly quickly. Then there’s the fact that Gisele’s very presence on Source challenges his assertions about mortals and what they’re willing to do for one another—she’s there because she sacrificed her life to save Ferelden. She accepted oblivion to do it, even, a fate worse than death; she had no way of knowing Hydaelyn’s blessing was even bc a thing much less something she had that would protect her from Urthemiel’s soul attempting to consume hers and destroying them both in the process. Her entire existence shatters all of Emet’s notions about mortals. She fascinates him because of that, and the fact she doesn’t put up with his shit. They’re just terribly well suited to each other and would be even without the reincarnation romance aspect to the ship.

Hythlodaeus is the other one, and lately I’ve really been fascinated with the idea of them being a triad with Müllenkamp (Gisele!Azem) as opposed to the V with Emet as the shared point that I’ve always had them as.

#1 after Gisele as far as this life goes is Y’shtola, and it’s not nearly as cracky as it sounds. Of the Scions, she’s by far the most sympathetic to him. Urianger and also Thancred—the latter because they have a lot in common, to the point Emet feels a lot like how Thancred could have ended up in the bad future, had he survived everyone else.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Fun Uncle to the twins.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

That it really was him being summoned from the Lifestream in the 5.3 trial, and not just some phantom memory fail safe he put in the Azem crystal. Yeah it kinda goes against what we know wrt what happens to Ascians once they’ve been obliterated by white auracite, but the White Day quests last year basically said he’s in the Lifestream and still conscious, and his entire “hat” as an ancient Amaurotine was his unusual attunement with/affinity for the Lifestream. If anyone could cheat death it’s Hades.

That’s also why I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him, but that’s probably wishful thinking on my part because I love him so damn much.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Something kinda minor, but I wish we had gotten confirmation that he’d possessed Varis in the second half of the parley. It’s weird how it seemed to be so heavily implied and then never got followed up on and then Varis died so welp.

Also, i wish that he comes back somehow. He does in Gisele’s verse, and becomes a Scion even, but I miss him desperately in the actual game. I want to see a reborn Emet having to cope with the world as it is, learning to fall in love with it (and maybe realizing Amaurot wasn’t the utopia he believed it was. I hope we get to explore more of that in Endwalker, the idea that the “perfect world” actually wasn’t). And helping to fix what he broke.

[telamons]

can you tell facts about yourself? reading your tags make me curious

this ask has been in my ask box for quite some time now, sorry. I don't know what kind of facts you expect but since I'm deep in my gaming mood with the blizzcon i guess I'll just share with you some gaming facts (mostly):

- I never played Mass Effect as F!Shep. I know that it's the version that is considered Canon within the ME community (and I respect it) but -bless Jennifer Hale nevertheless- to me the only default Shepard will always be its male version. And I swear it's not because of the Shakarian bromance.

- I hate Nintendo and I just want it to disappear and burn in hell, like Disney. And I hate myself even more for buying their consoles for my sister and some of their games (okay that's only Fire Emblem and a few Mario games but it pains me to even give them 1€, they fucking don't deserve it).

- While I always scream about how much I love Hien in FF XIV, my fave character is and will forever be Alphinaud. My dear son.

- I have a lot of controversial opinions, like Dead Space 3 and Resident 6 are two of my favorite games. Or the DmC reboot was a good game.

- I own more than 1000 games,if not a lot more. But I'm a cheater, there's a huge number of games that I own on various supports. Like RE4 that I bought.... 5 times. Or the whole ME trilogy that I bought on every support. Or RE6 that I own 3 times. Don't ask me why I do this, I don't know.

- Emet Selch is the best FF antagonist. Screw Sephiroth and Kuja (i still love you guys).

- I'm mainly playing on PlayStation consoles. But I play on everything. Consoles (both Microsoft/PlayStation or even Nintendo... At my biggest demise), pc and smartphone.

- I used to be a very competitive player back in my Uncharted 3 multi-player days. Did lots of world tournaments with my team and it's probably the greatest memory I have. I was also ranked 93th in the world ranking on tekken 6 on x360 like a millenia ago. Lili rocked 👍🏻

- Two out of my three tattoos are video games related. I have Sic Parvis Magna (a quote from the Uncharted series) written on my left arm and Ashe's tattoo from Overwatch on my right one.

- Black Flag was the best Assassin's Creed and the series died with it. Though ironically my fave assassins were the Frye twins.

- I don't think I've ever told anyone but I used to be addicted to video games to a serious degree when I was in middle school. I won't go into details because that's not the point here but despite my addiction that nearly got the best of my mental state back in the days, video games are what saved me, literally. I'm very dedicated to the topics about video game addiction because as a former addict, I know what it feels like because I've been through this and if I can help people in need, I will do it. I would like to add also something important: video games helped me to control my anger and violent behavior.

- I cry a lot over fictional characters. But who doesn't?

- When I was younger, I built a shrine in my room for dead characters. It all started because of Zack Fair. Bless that man. It was mostly a box with dead characters names written on paper near candles, and I prayed to them but I don't remember when specifically. I think I had decided different dates but I'm not sure.

- While I can understand why people are against it, I'm actually all for remasters and remakes.

- My first video game crush was Juto from MC II. A character that obviously no one knows.

- I hate what Naughty Dog has become. I miss the days when Amy Hennig and Christophe Balestra were still here. Everything changed because of Druckman and well... I don't like it. While he did excellent work on TLOU1 and U4, I just can't stand the guy.

- I once finished a game without actually looking at the screen, not even once (okay that's a lie, maybe 10 minutes). Context: I was trying to play Layers of Fear 1 but that shit was so scary that I couldn't even play the game without shaking like hell. So I asked my little sister to guide me through the game while I was controlling the character, as I was hiding in my blanket. That was a funny experience tho, we laughed a lot (I know you won't ever see this but love you, baby sis, you're the best)

Wow, that's horribly long, I'm so sorry. I didn't think I'd have this many facts to give about myself. Hope it's enough for you tho.

Thank you for the ask, whoever you are! o/

[autumnslance]

Lmao I got three I'm particularly curious about for you on the character meme. Thancred, Lahabrea, Igeyorhm. XD Feel free to do as many or as few as you'd like of course!

You asked for it. We’ll start with That Damned Rogue. The Ascians will be below.

This of course got long, so behind a cut it goes:

Thancred

First impression: I started in Gridania and took like 2 years to finish ARR 2.0, was already spoiled on the possession angle (I spoiled myself, no big), and had just @erickgage‘s affectionate joking summary of Thancred being the guy who shows up 5 minutes late with Starbucks to all the early battles. So I didn’t really get to meet the guy ‘til the Waking Sands.

And honestly, he was stereotypical generic bland anime prettyboy competent guy. His 1.0/ARR model is…just sorta there. He was a flirt, also generic as heck. Really didn’t register too much, until I finished 2.0 finally and then went hard on the MSQ through the patches and into HW and StB 4.0, when I finally caught up to content.

Impression now: Godsdammit.

My first replay through the game was on PunchyCat, starting in Ul’dah, which meant I got to meet Thancred much earlier. I was immediately amused by his nickname for Nanamo, and Papashan’s assessment of the witty Archon. I was more into the lore, getting the first lorebook and reading the short stories on the main site, and playing through all at once instead of piecemeal over months/years made things make more sense. Thancred hits a lot of tropes I commonly like in a lot of characters, so he jumped up to being a favorite.

Gunbreaker suits him as a tank job (thank goodness he can stop trying to tank warmachina as a rogue, ffs Thancred), and tanking in general suits him when it comes to fighting for those he cares about.

I’m interested in the ShB story mentioning why he wears white in all his gear iterations; I’d previously made a post about his color choices and that aspect of character design, but having a lore explanation for his affinity for that color was interesting. I didn’t think his HW model suited him, honestly; way too rough mountain man hobo. His model in ShB is closer to his ARR model, but different enough, and imbued now with actual character, that he’s a bit more visually interesting and while still pretty typical handsome anime protagonist in appearance; his true personality just comes through a lot more.

I’m still forever mad about the unintentional character ‘ship with Aeryn, tho. It took a 3rd playthrough for it to happen.

For myself, mind, when I got into playing and learned his canonical age, it was at the time the same difference between myself and my younger brother. My assessment of the Scion “family” with Thancred being the middle child (esp his behavior pre-HW) maybe helps that. I’m getting to a point, really, where I look at the characters under 35 and think “OMG disaster children, all of you.”

Favorite moment: Oh goodness. There’s some good ones.

‘How was I supposed to know all my girlfriends would track me down and show up at HQ all at the same time: a master class in how to not to deal with multiple paramours by Archon T. Waters.’

His dramatic reappearance and duel with Ardbert in HW 3.1.

Taking out his frustrations by soloing the Coerthas cyclops boss so we can get on with the Tournament and fight Raubahn. (Side Bonus: pre-tournament when he jokes about fighting for the other team to even up the odds, and then: “It looks to be a veritable who’s who of the Eorzean Alliance. The only question is: who came to watch and who came to fight? Hmm…Nanamo. Definitely Nanamo.”)

Making sure Urianger knew he was still part of the team post-Soul Surrender climax.

“All right, which one of you triggered the obvious trap?” Also learning he can hold his breath for 10 freaking minutes–but still gets to be jealous of the WoL, Lyse, and Alisaie for their kojin blessing.

That dramatic teamwork with Urianger to knock Ran’jit down the pit in Rak’tika.

That frickin’ Trolley duty and it’s aftermath with the completed checklist of anime death markers and then just sitting there battered and bleeding and smiling and then giving Ryne a name and a headpat and “You’re family.” Bastard.

Idea for a story: Have you seen my Ao3 account? *grumbles*

Unpopular opinion: While he likely used drinking as a bad coping mechanism at times in ARR’s patches, I doubt he ever really went to blackout, as losing control to that extent, after having been controlled and probably losing a lot of time while possessed, would be awful. We see him drink a few times, but I don’t think he is/was an alcoholic.

I also agree with @ahlis-xiv that his flirtatious persona was mostly adopted. While he probably does have a healthy libido and enjoys time with paramours (that Urianger keeps a handy list of), there’s a lot that’s likely exaggerated, allowed to be assumed, and otherwise used as a cover, given his specializations. It’s also noteworthy how he’s mostly acting the same even after being lost in the wilderness, right up until our foray into the Antitower. The wit/humor gets toned down a lot, but the flirting is cut out entirely after that. He still charms some ladies in the First, based on incidental dialogue, but that seems a general reaction to him being a handsome hero type rather than any intentional flirtatious act on his part.

Favorite relationship: Thancred and little sister types. I do wish we’d seen more of his relationship with Minfilia outside of informed moments and the short stories. I feel like he has a semi-older-brother relationship with Lyse, too, given their antics in the 2.0 patches (particularly the “Hoary’s fighting the WoL, come watch!” and Thancred not even considering how one of his girlfriends would see him sending Lyse to retrieve an item until after and going “oh yeah, whoops”). And now there’s Ryne, and she is totally running things if you watch their background conversations/body language. But that’s kind of where Thancred likes it; find a girl who needs a protective older brother and do what she asks and whatever she needs.

I do have a special place in my heart for the expanded broship with Urianger that Shadowbringers gave us, though. I’ve already spoken on that one.

Favorite headcanon: Everything people assume about how he spoils the nutkin. And really, focusing on taking care of and doting on a pet would be good therapy. Goodness knows he needs it.

Also I assume he and Hilda hooked up at least once during the HW patches. Part of that expectation and cover, sure, to immediately flirt with the pretty, tough, half-elezen guard captain. But also, he spent however long mostly alone, and then only with the Vath and a nutkin for company; the guy was probably touch-starved and lonely and just needing a connection to another person he could relate to (that wasn’t a bug).

Otherwise, again, have you seen my Ao3? Ugh. Damned snarky smart rogues…

————

Lahabrea

First impression: Laughing Organization XIII-wannabe is obvious villain. Wonder what their deal is.

Impression now: So much lost/wasted potential thanks to being stuck as the ARR villain when it was so hastily rewritten and acted, and so little was decided on the Ascians and their motivations yet. A lot of what we learn now retroactively makes him more interesting. The fact he was a workaholic who looked at the workaholic Scion and went “ah yes; that one will do, perfect” makes me laugh.

Favorite moment: I like his interactions with Elidibus. And I am actually fairly fond of his theatrical reveal in Praetorium about the Ultima Weapon, the Heart of Sabik, and casting Ultima.

Idea for a story: Maybe stuff while he’s possessing Thancred. Maybe stuff between then and the Reactor. I dunno; I’ve been enjoying a lot of others’ stories about our first Ascian antagonist.

Unpopular opinion: Dunno if this is unpopular, but some of the retroactive information is to excuse why he seemed so much less powerful than other, later Ascians, but I do think the Speaker could be quite devious and powerful, if he had better writing around him. He suffers for being from ARR.

Favorite relationship: I am not ashamed to admit I am a Lahabrea/Igeyorhm shipper and Hades Ex seems to agree with me so there.

Favorite headcanon: The Speaker likely also had a good singing voice. Another thing good about possessing a man whose primary cover was a bard–excuses to indulge that.

————

Igeyorhm

First impression: Wannabe-Organization XIII also hires women, cool. Wonder if she’ll get to do anything?

Impression now: I’m sad so much got cut from HW; as great as it was, a lot got left on the editing room floor and it shows in spots–particularly where the Ascians connect with the plot. We learn much about her retroactively as well, including how she worked for/with Lahabrea thanks to being the one to wreck the Thirteenth, and change Ascian policy on how to bring about Rejoinings. I still wanna know more about her.

Favorite moment: You beat the whale, good job–thanks, that’s my key now. It’s such a perfect dick move. Excellent timing and taunting. 

Idea for a story: Maybe some of her inner thoughts working for/with Lahabrea. She was a raised up shard, so does that mean they found the scattered pieces of her original soul and force-merged them? I doubt it, since Emet-Selch mentions raising up those who are a piece of the previous office holder, but I wonder if it came with imbuing the new title-holder with some of those memories and knowledge. Perhaps she wonders if some of her interactions/feelings/whatever with Lahabrea are her own, or her tapping into her previous life’s memories. Something to think about, anyway.

Unpopular opinion: I dunno, she shoulda gotten to stick around longer? Or been allowed to do a lot more? Should have been much more of a presence in HW, but I don’t think that’s unpopular so much as unconsidered.

Favorite relationship: Lahabrea is really the only one she gets significant interactions with. Though I wonder about her interactions with the other few women in the Ascians.

Favorite headcanon: See above with the story ideas, really; she didn’t get a lot of time onscreen so there’s a lot of room to make things up, and retroactive info from ShB to make her more interesting, or at least her situation as an upraised Ascian.

[illegiblewords]

The Drawing Continues...

Meanwhile though, very small general FFXIV post.

- I have seen small indications that there are Emet-Selch/WoL shippers who, for want of a romantic antagonist, miiiight be taking a “LAHABREA IS A SLEAZY MONSTER” route. I hope this isn’t true because 1) Clearly Lahabrea is a simple workaholic loser explosion enthusiast don’t do him dirty that way :’< 2) LBR if any of the convocation or just Ascians in general were gonna be sleazy it’s fuckin’ Nabriales lmao. I have some affection for him too after writing the guy but honestly he is a little bitch just let him follow his sleazy little bitch dreams and achieve the credit he deserves.

- I am still fic outlining a bit for my misadventure in Emet-Selch/WoL shipping and I have discovered the price of a happy ending might involve a grown man making a child cry lmao. Also, kind of want to do an AU short based on the story of Tam Lin but I have too many plates spinning right now.

- I’m so happy that people are jumping on the AU train lol, but it made me pause and ask myself wtf my AU would be. High school is so cliche/classic that it would probably be fun to think about but I would take so many notes from the lunch table cliques post that was circulating a while back. So probably what I would propose would be more like company AU.

Amaurot Inc. was a very successful business that was run by a board of fourteen and owned by Zodiark, who kept them from going under during a period of financial termoil that sent a ton of competitors out of business. It hit a point where they were worried the entire industry would collapse, and the only reason that was avoided came through a horrifying number of layoffs. The Fourteenth board member quit early on in the crisis and later shows up with Sunder Corp as Zodiark and the heads of Amaurot struggle to create a new work model. The work model would involve hiring a lot of new employees, training them to excellence so that the company could thrive again, then downsizing massively to rehire the fewer but more skilled workers who had previously been let go. Hydaelyn is head of Sunder Corp. and consider this practice highly unethical, decide to buy out Amaurot Inc. and just replace staff with a bunch of new hires so there can be a fresh start without this weird revolving door policy. Only three board members escape the purge while the rest languish in unemployment.

The Warrior of Light inherits the position at Sunder-Amaurot Corp. and was trained by the Fourteenth board member, but is basically fresh to the position. The remaining three board members from Amaurot Inc. have collaborators who were trained by their now-sacked former colleagues, but they feel that this entire situation is a huge step down from what they originally envisioned. They all feel like sellouts after pouring their hearts and souls into this company, and would rather find a way to overthrow current management and downsize after all to have what they consider higher quality work... even if it means lower production and tons of employees are fired in the process. WoL and the Scions, who are the highest ranking employees at Sunder-Amaurot Corp., are aware of this sentiment but can’t easily fire the remaining Amaurot Inc. employees/sympathizers themselves. Emet-Selch’s involvement with the Scions comes from basically him getting pissed off and challenging the Scions/WoL to prove that the new company actually cares and produces comparably high quality work to the original Amaurot Inc. Lahabrea works in PR with Elidibus but gets switched to a more backseat role and eventually fired because he lives on caffeine and fumes, which eventually results in a massive scandal. He ends up at some Ishgardian restaurant as a waiter after that, getting ripped apart by the owner Thordan on a regular basis. Nabriales toes the line of being considered guilty of sexual harassment in the workplace and gets successfully sacked by the WoL after a complaint is lodged by both Moenbryda and Minfilia. Unfortunately, Moenbryda decided to quit around the same time—much to the dismay of her colleagues, particularly Urianger.

I could probably go into more detailed headcanons for like, wtf happened with Alphinaud and the Crystal Braves, Tataru being the real power behind the throne despite her position technically being secretary, Gaius being some kind of inspector who prides himself on rooting out shady business practices and firing those responsible... Zenos is prob the son of a rival company owner who doesn’t give a shit about the service at all but loves corporate bullshit and is literally just in this business to wreak havoc. People think he’s in it to expand wealth for his family or at least because he doesn’t understand what being broke is like, but the reality is he could live in a shack and be fine with it. He literally just likes fucking with people and this is a job where he gets paid to do that. Technically Emet-Selch is responsible for this rival company and still has a lot of influence there but the owner Varis thinks that is total bullshit and just wants to fuck over everything at Sunder-Amaurot Corp. to run things his way.

Meanwhile stupid office drama. Thancred and Emet-Selch are equally likely to steal each other’s lunch out of the fridge on a given day. Emet-Selch started it and Thancred decided to mirror the behavior as revenge. Unfortunately for Thancred Emet-Selch likes dangerously spicy food so there is something hollow in his victories. Y’shtola (among other things) runs the intern program with affection and a scathing sense of humor. They all love her but after her chat with Magnai no one tries to mess around. Intern Runar has a massive crush on her. Alisaie was reluctant to join because she felt like she’d turn into a suit, but after a night of drinking and partying with the WoL coupled with probably-drunk conversations about being a company for the little guy, she decided to give it a go. After all, if she knows what to watch out for and had a position of influence she can keep things ethical from within. Urianger works IT and no one knows what he’s even saying like 80% of the time. Rumor has it he started dumping technical jargon to impress fellow-nerd Moenbryda but he never stopped after she left.

And so on lol. Just FFXIV but The Office.