#I legit take notes in a doc as I'm going through MSQ of thoughts and tidbits

[soulshards-ooc]

I've passed the first real milestone of ARR (joining a GC, getting my chocobo, fighting Ifrit), and I have a lot of thoughts so it feels like a good time to come back and reflect on the story so far and how I feel Zari is coming along as a WOL to be.

Just to clarify, I have played through alll of MSQ up until the most recent path. The last time I actually did A Realm Reborn without skipping everything and ignoring all the next however, was a long time ago. Pretty much around the time I first started playing the game. I was a Pugilist in Ul’dah.

However, probably because it has been so long, but you - just an Adventurer at this point - deal with so much so early on. You deal with so much death and corruption already. I think this is partly to do with the fact I started in Ul’dah, for sure. But already you’ve had drugs planted on your intro carriage, you get laughed at for asking help as if help is at all free in Ul’dah. Add in the refugee crisis ongoing in which people are forced to starve and sell themselves for money - and finally, all the aforementioned death you deal with.

Pretty much 5 quests into the story you drop unconscious and the Mother Crystal speaks to you, you wake up and Thancred is like “okay sleepy head” and you’re like “I found this blue crystal and had a weird dream!” and he’s just “okay” and moves on. Anyone, no matter how skilled they may be, surely would think they’re losing their mind at this point. There’s so little build up to you being “a chosen one”, you just are now, even if you - the Adventurer - just run around saying that you’re only an adventurer and nothing special. Which happens routinely. You just want to help people because you can, not because you’re special. At this point I think you’re convinced it’s all a fever dream.

"What the fuck was that about?" - WOL, Probably

A little longer down the line after helping some people out, you literally stumble upon a plan by Lolorito and undo it, definitely putting you on a list but you’re either so unaware of social standing (despite everyone telling you how this is  bad) or just don’t care that you think nothing more of it. It is what it is. You were just helping someone, you’re not involved with trying to underhand the Syndicate at all. (But this moment here can so nicely wrap into the 2.x events that happen leading up until you flee to Ishgard - I can’t tell if it was intentional or just a happy accident, either way, I do enjoy the fact so early on you can see these little pieces starting to fall into place.)

You’ve dealt with 2 voidsent so far, which for most common people, would be terrifying to see. A weird, dark robed and masked man comes and mocks you a couple of times and makes you fight him because you’re getting in the way - of what, you have NO IDEA - you just are. Again, this feels like something any normal person would be a little suspect about, even if you didn’t have any ‘close’ friends to confide in about it. But you, this quiet adventurer, just take it as it is and you see it as just another guy who you need to cut down because - well just look at him, he's a bad guy, right?

You are invited to a banquet at the behest of Nanamo because you’ve helped the city out by saving her crown (we’re getting towards the level 10-15 quests here) - in which Raubahn takes you aside to, politely inform you, that this banquette is nice and all but children are starving in the streets. Nanamo WANTS to do something about it, but the people of the Syndicate are so happy getting fat from their workers back they make it almost impossible. Nice! What a lovely city!

While he recants the plight of those who lived through the Calamity, your crystal begins to glow. A familiar light, he claims, to that of the Warriors of Light who are no more. Raubahn looks upon you and see’s something that perhaps you do not - what you will become. He see’s a future we dare yet imagine because thinking that your actions might at all come down to the success or fall of our realm is terrifying, and egotistical.

Raubahn believes in you. You take 10 damage.

Raubahn calls you the closest thing to a Warrior of Light when in reality, all you’ve done is a couple of fetch quests and helped out some people. But then again, that’s what a Warrior of Light is - right? You do what you can to help people, without expectations of rewards or anything like that. No, you… you just do what you think is right, or what other people think is right. What other people tell you to do.

(Thankfully he is the first person to provide some sort of insight into the blue crystal you've gained and what it may be - that you've been blessed by Hydaelyn herself, another being who believes in you more than you believe in yourself.)

Which brings me over to the third dungeon we come to. Copperbell Mines. We are told to go clear out the rampaging giants who have broken through the stone after being trapped in the Mines for 300 years! And you know what's super messed up! They used to be slaves! Papashan acknowledges that it's a little… out of taste, going to kill all the Giants but assures you that it’s the only way, and for the best. So - we do it. We go and kill them because someone told us to, when in fact they were a beastribe suffering, and something more should have been done. Papashan you're supposed to know better!

So, alright. You're an adventurer, but you're a little bit more special than your usual kind. People seem to be able to see something in you that you don't see yourself. They believe in you, and that you will go on to do good things, to become someone.

So do we keep moving to make these people proud - these people we have only just met, and spoken with very little. But they, they look at you like you're something more and you don't want to let them down?

Or do we keep moving because we think it's the right thing to do?

The answer is, it's probably both, right? So early on we start to effect peoples lives (usually for the better) and so early on we have this rippling effect on people and they're thankful for our help - as we're not like the rest. Other people wouldn't extend a hand as you do, and expect nothing in return.

We end up fighting a God, not because we want too, but because you're the only one left who can - and if you don't, so many people will die. And already, already we have dealt with so many bodies, so much death - by our own hand or just the fallout of others. We have carried them and buried them all the same. To me, at least with how Zari is developing, this is the first moment where he forgoes the self and fights for others - he fights because only HE can, and he fights so that others may yet survive.

How soul crushing would it be to find out that you essentially fought for nothing?

Anyways, honestly to just kind of conclude my thoughts a little bit. I am enjoying the story again so far, however I feel like those level 0-20 Quests the pacing was just... so quick when it comes to you being Outed as a WOL-to-be and your involvement with everything. I don't recall what the exact quest changes were with 2.0, but if they did change any of the early quests (or removed any) I think it's thrown the pacing off just a little bit too much. But that's just my personal preference. I enjoy a bit of slow burn and a bit of mystery, which I know comes far later in the game but early on it feels important too.

I dislike how almost instantly it's "You have a gift and you remind me of the Warrior's of Light!" and there's not a little more build up and trust gained there. That being said. It's not bad, and I don't dislike it. I just wish the pacing was a little better - regardless of whether this is because of the ARR Quest changes or this is how it always was!

Anyways, killed a God, got a chocobo 8.5/10 on the story so far (My issue is literally just pacing, not the context of the quests themselves. I like how "real" it feels so early on with the lasting, long term impact of the Calamity and Garlemald.

A star is also lost because fuck Alphinaud is so insufferable in ARR