#PLD

[mattymartin]

↳ PIERRE-LUC DUBOIS PREGAME | WSH v. FLA | 3.22.25

[sgtpeppers]

Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney & Denny Laine in the Spin It On music video, 1979.

[tritoch]

i know a lot of people (very understandably) dislike the paladin job quests in ffxiv, particularly HW, but i do think it's fun that, now that the pre-ShB MSQ revamp is complete, paladins now have a very cool and thematic in-game storyline that happens without a word being spoken: the development of passage of arms.

none of the below is directly stated in the script, but imo it's a fairly obvious gloss on what the game presents, if you assume a paladin warrior of light. spoilers for all expansions through the end of 6.X.

in the new version of steps of faith, as vishap breaks through each ward protecting ishgard from attack, lucia mounts a final desperate effort to hold him back, with a very familiar looking animation:

but even lucia can't hold back vishap's flame alone, so the temple knights surge forward to assist her. their efforts make the shield visually more powerful and larger. the temple knights here band together in defense of ishgard, and their knightly resolve to protect their home is the difference between victory and defeat.

lucia and the knights do ultimately succeed in defending the last ward, as you have to defeat vishap before their shield falls or you lose.

later in heavensward, obviously, we will get ffxiv's most famous (failed) attempt at blocking something with a shield.

this moment can be read as fairly impactful on the warrior of light's development; as i've noted elsewhere, after the trauma of watching haurchefant bleed out in their arms at level 57, at level 58 paladins learn to channel their magic into healing (and it's called "clemency," or mercy. mercy for whom? who was guilty?), and as someone pointed out on that post, at level 58 dark knights used to get "sole survivor", letting them heal in response to a marked target's death.

for a time, you literally carry haurchefant's shield with you, and 3.3 very much literalizes in genre fashion the idea that even when you are standing alone, your fallen friends stand with you. you don't need to call any allies to stand at your side and raise their shields with you because they are already there, in spirit.

stormblood marks a pretty important turning point in the warrior of light as a combatant, in my opinion, and the text makes this clear in several ways. first, in pretty much all your jobs, you've now far exceeded your trainers and are pioneering new techniques. this is no less true of paladin, which for 60-70 abandons any trainers at all for you to show off your peerless skills in a tournament.

second, stormblood is straight up a story about you getting stronger. at level 61, zenos kicks your ass. at level 70, you kick his ass. why? because you fought and got stronger and developed incredible new techniques and became a one-man army.

for a lot of classes, this story lines up nicely with the big rotation changes or flashy new finishers on the way from 60 to 70. SMN is now busting out bahamut and casting akh morn; RDM gets verflare and verholy; DRG starts harnessing nidhogg's power directly through dragon sight and nastrond.

the tanks are divided in two: warriors and gunbreakers get huge damaging upgrades at 70 in the form of inner release and continuation, each of which lets them hit the same button many times for lots of damage and satisfying animations. paladin and dark knight get more protective abilities; dark knight gets the blackest night, and there's been plenty said about that already by pretty much everyone.

paladins get passage of arms. instead of a relentless new attack (and you get requiescat at 68, which is a way bigger deal for your dps rotation), your big reveal at 70 for zenos in your fight in ala mhigo is a superior way to protect your party, a shield that lets you stand for your allies so they never have to fall for you again. it's lucia's same shield, except you need no allies' shields to reinforce you, proof of your martial prowess and your ability to transcend limits, and perhaps in truth a reminder that you never really stand alone.

in many respects passage of arms should really feel like a paladin signature move to you now if you are playing it at this point, because you should be popping it in pretty much every fight (you are using your mits, right...?). basically every FFXIV fight has at least one big AOE with downtime that warrants passage of arms usage, usually after the mid-fight add phase with slowly filling bar. since that AOE usually drops during downtime, there's no reason not to pop passage of arms (which otherwise restricts your movement and actions), and even on normal, sometimes every little bit counts on a damage check even if it means dropping DPS (thinking here of harrowing hell P10N on release, which was...less consistent for a lot of roulette parties than you might hope).

so from 70 onward, passage of arms is in a sense a paladin warrior of light's signature move, and certainly the one a player gets to most actually enjoy (since if you're using it, you're by necessity not doing anything besides moving your camera and admiring your sick animation). it doesn't have any competition in terms of spectacle until confiteor, and those you're usually throwing out in the middle of movement.

it's such a signature, in fact, that the only other person shown using your one-person version of passage of arms is your greatest admirer, who studied your legend for over a century.

and it's when he fails (should've popped arm's length, bud) that the warrior of light decides they can't let their friends fall for them, and sends them away with the transporter beacon. this is all wrong: you were meant to die for them, not the other way around. yours is the shield that stands between your allies and defeat. it is you who will win this passage of arms and break your opponents lance. and you do.

and then later, when they need to quickly establish zero's domain as a place of fallen grandeur, the home of someone who once believed in heroes but is now a cool and cynical vampire hunter d, what do they use? a decayed statue of someone in the paladin endwalker gear doing the passage of arms animation, of course.

from a visible instantiation of knighthood as a joint effort to defend what is sacred, to a tribute to the fallen friends whose memories stand by you and animate you, to a symbol of the wol's power as emulated by their allies or darkly mirrored in other shards.

not bad for a mit button you hit once per fight and otherwise never think about!

[lafragolina]

Caps + text posts, oops all PLD edition:

+assorted other caps edition

[casadoresdean]

I love this team so much… 🥺😭

[connorsleons]

I am what I am 'cause you trained me / so who's afraid of me?

[fridaysvalentine]

pierre-luc dubois - los angeles kings ♚ 𓏲 ୨ৎ.°⭑

[kamalemons]

New banner art for the blog, featuring allllll my favorite lil' buddies and my sona.

[varsity-sportsbeing]

Okay, I have ventured into the podcast bro realm for a Pierre-Luc Dubois (link - Empty Netters EP 53) and returned alive to summarize. Someone’s got to do it. Here is a list of things that seemed interesting to me! I’m also working on transcribing a few longer bits.

Name lore: PL to friends and family, about five hockey bro variations of Dubie, and

Torts decided to call him Luc. Because “PL” was too complicated. No one else calls him that! Yike!

Off days in Winnipeg he hung out at an Italian grocery store and coffee shop. What a vibe.

Referenced “red boots that broke the internet” on a tangent. Apparently more fashion knowledgeable than me 🤷 I had to google that shit

DJ guy in the locker room a lot of the time, but not a huge fan of the responsibility. He cares a lot about music and likes French rap in particular.

Mentioned sewerball being dangerous for rookies and he did not participate his first year in Columbus. Context for the Sharks?

Oh they are so excited about the LA deal for him. And hindsight is 20/20 but he seems much more tempered about it. Subjectively it’s like he’s saying “they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse” and they are like “isn’t it so great when you just have that perfect clarity that something is the right choice?” He’s clearly in for serious tho - talked about renting while buying/building a house (which in LA is gonna take years for sure)

Ok this is the funniest one. He has an alter ego of sorts. If he does not want to interact with someone who’s maybe recognizing him he’ll say his name is Enzo. Enzo who works in cybersecurity.

Apparently Byfield is a great guy but a total liar

Selected short transcripts below the cut.

Disclaimer: this is my first time transcribing anything, so feedback is welcome. I started from the generated transcript. I had a difficult time telling the two hosts apart by voice, so I just went with referring to them collectively most of the time, and when I felt it was important, by either left [L] or right [R]. If you are a big fan of these guys, I am sorry. I also cut out a lot of "yeah yeah" interjections for clarity.

Podcast link

Nickname Discussion: 12:31

Hosts: Alright, we're officially welcoming Gretzky Cup gold medalist, World Junior silver medalist, the Paul Dumont Trophy winner, the Mike bossy Trophy winner, 2022 World Championship All-Star, and the third overall pick of the 2016 NHL draft Pierre-Luc Dubois. Welcome to the empty netters podcast.

PLD: Thanks for having me

Hosts: it's just a long time coming dude. Exciting exciting stuff. I'm very very happy about it dude. When we met - when you first got here for media day, or you know, the Kings media day and everything, I heard one of the reporters was like, "What should we call you?" and you're like, "PL is good," so I call you PL. But I'm curious, like dude, what is - I want the scope of what people call you. What do your boys at home call you, what are the guys in locker room calling you, what does your mother call you? Because we have a funny sphere of people who know you, and everyone refers to you as something different.

PLD: Yeah I have a lot of nicknames.

Host: Yeah you do.

PLD: I don't even know where to start. I got Dubie.

Hosts: Yeah which is sick. That is a sick nickname.

PLD: That was my dad's nickname when he played. Because my dad played um, in the AHL and IHL so, that was his nickname. So it kind of started because of that. Then I have Dubes because I don't know why. Honestly I don't remember that one. Duber is my Instagram. That doesn't really apply. Nobody really calls me Duber. I have PL which is like what my family and close friends call me. But then I got to Columbus, and Torts said PL was too complicated; too long. So he changed it to Luc. [Host: It's two letters!] So I also had Luc. Yeah that's what I said! I was like complicated? Long? It's two letters! He's like nah, it's - it's Luc. I was like alright. So he would call me Luc; nobody else calls me Luc. Ummm [counting on fingers]- Dooby, Dubes, Duber, Luc, PL and then uh here - like my - when I was younger - you ever watch Even Stevens?

Hosts: oh my God yeah okay

PLD: So yeah my cousins who are older than me and my sister when I was annoying they call me "Beans."

Hosts: no no dude

PLD: And I love, I love Beans. Yeah I think it's hilarious. So a few - that's like, that's come up in the past. But yeah, so I'd say those five or whatever. Pierre-Luc when I was in trouble. Yeah I never want to hear that one

Winnipeg Down time 42:37-43:28

Host[L]: What was your go-to off day in Winnipeg?

PLD: There's this place uh, actually- I love this place, Italian grocery store called Deluca's.

Hosts: okay fuck yeah, okay

PLD: Good pizza, great coffee, the people are phenomenal, great food. So I'd go there even if I didn't have to do groceries. I'd just go there and have a coffee.

Host[L]: Yeah, is it Italian family owned and run?

PLD: Yeah

Host[L]:Yeah those are the best man

PLD: Great people. So I'd like to say thank you, because I was there a lot. You know, I'd often stop by my parents, go say hi. There's this place called The Forks - another good coffee - I love coffee, so yeah, spent a decent amount there. And then at the end of the year, we found a golf simulator we spent a decent amount of time at. So yeah, I'd say those things. Then I played a decent amount of video games too

Host[L]: So what's the go to? Actually, before we even say it - I am assuming you're a FIFA guy?

PLD: Yeah

Host[L]: Are you also a formula one guy?

PLD: yeah

[Editor's note: I am not a formula one guy but I know there's enough overlap between hockey and formula one fandoms that I figured I ought to include it. They talk a bit more about the video game after this]

Red shoes thing 45:45-46:11

[On screen they have a giant ~3ft slide from a sponsor. They do an ad for the brand.] Hosts: For everyone watching I hope you can see this incredible slide sandal. We don't have to do this, but it's amazing. It's a sick slide. You're uh, you're getting a pair of these - really it's not that size. You should-

PLD: Yeah, it's like a dog bed.

Hosts: Yeah, dude, you see all these NBA guys showing up to games in crazy fits? If you showed up in two of these, you break the internet. It'd break the internet.

PLD: Yeah, it's like the red boots, that broke the internet, same thing, yeah

Locker room DJ & Sewerball 46:35-47:35

PLD: I was forced to be DJ in Columbus.

Hosts: oh wow young

PLD: Yeah, too young. I wasn't ready.

Hosts: That is aggressive. Huge responsibility. How much French hip-hop did you shove down their throats?

PLD: I got chirped too bad so I stopped. But - ah, me, I'd always sit in the dressing room because my first year, I didn't play sewerball. Because as a rookie playing sewerball is tough.

Hosts: yeah yeah, dangerous.

PLD: Yeah, it's also dangerous. So I just stay in the dressing room, tape my sticks, and so would Panarin. And I played a Russian song for him. He loved it, didn't say anything. So I played a French song to see how he'd feel about it - didn't say anything. So I was like okay we're onto something here. So I played my French rap when everybody'd be gone. And then when he left, Bjorkstrand would be that guy, so I'd play some Danish rap for him and then I'd play my French stuff. But yeah, when I got put in that position, I wasn't ready for it. It was stressful. A lot a lot of sleepless nights, shuffling through the playlists, being like, "I gotta get this one out. I didn't like the reaction from anybody."

Enzo 1:30:30

PLD: Enzo - okay funny story. That's like my name when I go somewhere and somebody recognized me and I don't want to talk.

Hosts: Oh you just go like this - I'm Enzo. I'm not Pierre.

PLD: I say, "People tell that - people say that to me all the time." But I'm Enzo.

Hosts: oh my God that's

PLD: So at like Starbucks -

Hosts: So you have like a secret personality. When someone asks for your name, you say Enzo.

PLD: Yeah like Starbucks - Enzo. Because like, also Pierre-Luc - like, nobody gets. In English-speaking places, nobody gets it. So I just say Enzo because everybody gets that. But yeah, so uh Enzo is that name.

Hosts[L]: Having a Alter Ego when you don't want to be recognized might be the greatest.

Host[R]: Like, "Oh everyone thinks, I'm everyone thinks I'm Pierre-Luc."

Host[L]: I'm so glad I asked about that

PLD: And when somebody says - hey are you Pierre-Luc?

Host: -I look just like him, I get that all the time. Like I know, I know doppelganger.

PLD: I have no idea who this guy is but like whatever.

Hosts: Have you ever come into a circumstance where you pull that move, and someone's like bullshit, dude I know it's you?

PLD: Yeah in uh, we were in Dallas, it's after a game. I went downstairs to get my food, because I ordered food at the hotel. Then um, I had to go get it at the bar, and it wasn't ready. So I was like, hey I'll have a beer here. And these four guys next to me, they're like, "We saw you play tonight." I was like, "No idea what you're talking about." Then like, "Yeah, we saw you play. Pierre-Luc Dubois, you're Pierre-Luc Dubois, yeah right." It's like, "No I'm Enzo." like, "Where do you work? it's like, "Uh, cyber security." Yeah like, "What company?" "Fieldman Pelts," and they're like, "oh oh okay." And I came back to my room, and I thought, I was like, that was perfect. Because they had no idea about cyber security. They had no idea what questions to ask.

[ronandhermy]

that's OUR HORSE that we saved from the slaughterhouse and cared for and fed warm oats to and now we're going to win the big race and save the farm

[tritoch]

i've seen posts before drawing parallels between FFXIV paladins and 5e oath of the ancients paladins since the name and principles of the subclass are fitting for the warrior of light

what i've never seen anyone point out before, however, is that this is not the only thing that makes it relevant, because it also has access to FFXIV's most impactful ability: the power to summon the Cutscene Chains

at long last...the power of the ancients, in your hands...

[tiredassmage]

*twirls hair* so about that guy i said i'd make to do things with the pld story...

[capsfriendly]

carbs’ face of confusion and disgust at the penalty being called on pld instead of chych was SO funny

[spawn1644]

Is that even roughing if it was done so casually? 😂😂 GTFO of my face, little man, he says.

[mxaether]

A Cutesy!!