#dragon quest 11 spoilers

[isthereameaningtothissong]

[magentasky234]

Playing DQ11 again and realised that Erik and Veronica's arguing reminded me of Erik and Mia. I think Erik sees her as a sister like Mia.

Spoilers under the cut:

He was one of the saddest about her death, saying "No..." when she faded away and reaching his arm out. He also said "No!" and punched a tree. He truly cared about her, despite their arguing. He lost a sister a second time.

[colossal-niamh]

Ok so I’ve been making my way through Dragon Quest XI for a bit with some friends. we just got to the act 2 reunion with Serena and DAMMMMN game why’d you have to go for the heartstrings like that? Love it so far I think we’re about halfway through but owwww game my feels

[corneille-moisie]

Im deep into dq11's post game and i have feelings

I wish you could see Dundrasil rebuilt. You get to rebuild Cobblestone, in one timeline Carnelian (and Jade) and Rab both talk about rebuilding their cities...

In the other timeline, Heliodor was never destroyed !

I want to rebuild Dundrasil and then go rebuild Zwaardrust so that no one has their hometown left in ruins !

Let's rebuild Cobblestone ! Then let's go rebuild Dundrasil ! And let's build New Zwaardrust on top of the old one !

[oseike]

Well I wrote my own fanfic like a 13 yo girl and uploaded it to ao3. I made an account just so I could do this. Honestly I may be cringe but I am free to embrace it so here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/49287325

That's the bitch

Summary: A canon-close edit of the main story: when Mordegon steals the powers of the Luminary, it shatters the Luminary's soul. Now Rab must find the fragments from the space between life and death and put them back together, lest his grandson be lost forever. Yet doing so may prove to be an unexpected boon...

No warnings, not a romance (....hopefully that's obvious to everyone here). I rated teen+ on ao3 just cos there is mention of blood...I guess...

Some more thoughts under the cut

My other thoughts don't have anything to do with the fic itself; more game play and story adjustments I would have liked:

1) In the cutscene when Mordegon kills the World Tree, we see him destroy the Luminary powers, which originally has basically zero effect on the protagonist, since he’s freely able to use his powers after waking up again. I found that kind of stupid. I would change it so that upon getting back on land, the Luminary would no longer have free access to his Luminary powers. For the first section of the story, with Hendrik, the Luminary skills would be simply grayed out and unavailable. To make it easier, all enemies in that section would be weak to physical damage, and regular attacks are simply the extent of what the protagonist can do - though Hendrik, of course, can do more.

2) BUT, upon defeating the first general boss, the protagonist would gain a little bit of the Luminary powers back. My reasoning is this: Mordegon stole the powers of the Luminary. Instead of completely destroying them, it’d make it more fun to break it up into pieces and give those pieces to his generals. Mordegon wouldn’t need them anymore, having already stolen the heart of Yggdrasil, so shards of the Luminary’s powers could prove to be a nice boon for his favorite underlings. Thus, defeating certain regional bosses also returns the Luminary powers to him.

3) To have a twist: after getting the first sliver back, the player could technically access any of the Luminary spells and skills - but only a few are actually unlocked with each certain story beat/regional boss defeated. This means you could attempt to use a skill that hasn’t been unlocked in battle - but doing so would drop the protag’s HP to half the first time. It would trigger a cutscene after the battle where the party (whoever you had) would express concern and warn the player not to try that again, because he’s not recovered properly. If you did it again, it would auto-KO him. There’d be another triggered cutscene, where the protagonist would collapse and the party would rush to the last campsite or town you passed. He would wake up but be scolded again for over-exerting himself and then be told he’s not allowed to battle again since he clearly can’t control himself - at least, not until he can prove he’s more healed, which can happen at an inn. Resting at the campsite wouldn’t be enough, and the player wouldn’t be able to put him into the party for the time being.

4) I realize this does clash with the events of Rab later, because in meeting him, the protagonist originally learned Quadraslash (“an ultimate Luminary skill”) and his first combo with Rab. I think this could just be adjusted: Master Pang can just teach them how to combo. It also elevates how cool the characters are if their weakest combo skill still defeats Mordegon’s invasion of the afterlife realm, and would make the player more excited to see the stronger combinations. Then Master Pang can tell them to return to Angri'La and read a scroll/talk to her successor to gain one of the Luminary’s greatest skills after he’s healed - paving the way for him to return and gain the Quadraslash and actually make it a strong, cool skill for the final battle..

5) I think that it is important for the protagonist to have a moment where others look after him and he gets to go on a healing journey. He was he terribly injured (which should be kind of traumatic!); he shouldn’t just be jumping up and running off without any issues.

6) Thus, this journey lets the protagonist know he can depend on the others, and the journey would let those party members come into their own and take responsibility for seizing fate with their own hands. This becomes extra poignant if you remember Yggdrasil is gone; Yggdrasil’s favorite still exists but the tree can’t help him, and it’s truly up to the remaining living people to save themselves. This IS a theme the game tries to sell you, too, but it kind of falls flat when they also keep driving home how necessary the Luminary is.

7) It also makes the various instances when the protagonist collapses (such as meeting the Seer) all the more harrowing for the party members, because they know he’s not entirely whole and they can’t know exactly what might break him in his current state.

(I’ll be honest, I kind of want Hendrik to suffer a lot more than he did. I love his character, he should wallow in guilt and misery.)

8) One more thing: this setup would nullify much of what the Seer says to him. Thus, I think that moment would be better off spent helping him get over the trauma of near-death, and the worry of whether or not he’d be enough to battle Mordegon when the time came. The Seer can use that moment as a chance to reinforce the idea of relying on his companions instead of trying to take everything on himself, thus cycling back to the ‘you’re not alone/you don’t need to shoulder everything’ message. Poignant, knowing who the Seer is.

[daezedglownut]

I really love how the game starts out with you saving Gemma, and you think “ok, they’re obviously pulling the ‘childhood friend to lovers card’ here” except you finally leave your hometown, meet a twink in prison, see the world, and if you CHOOSE to, you can “marry” him, and end up closing the game with you saving him in the same way IN THE SAME PLACE.

Only this time the scene has bedroom eyes.

Incredible.

Idk, I just love how the game lets you play the Luminary 100% straight if you want, OR as “the only gay in the village” who only really seemed to emote and smile when he was taking part in a pride parade, and got a less than traditional happy ending - and it’s played completely straight! (Pardon the pun…)

Don’t even get me started on Sylv’s Act 2 adventure, and how it subverts the “those evil gays are recruiting our innocent kids” trope, and instead tells this beautiful story of queer community and how, with the right support, all these closeted guys felt safe enough to Be Themselves and start their new life - despite their age (Tetsu 🥺💕)

And again, none of this is played off as a joke.

I truly love this game like no other.

[fuddledance]

an old edit but i still like it

[flabebabe]

This is the funniest fucking thing. Imagine him just staring at you from a tank like. Autism creature.

[elikha]

Cringe luminerik angst (I think about this often🫡)

[lubbee]

Confession

[isthereameaningtothissong]

[blvcklizard]

Act 3 wouldn't hurt anywhere near as much if, throughout the whole game and especially act 2, there hadn't been multiple plot relevant instances of the party going "the Luminary was never meant to fight alone, we made it that far together and we will stay by his side no matter what" only for the Luminary to turn around and leave them at the first opportunity.

I'm not even saying this to criticise the time travel plot (I dislike that for a different reason, although to be fair, the gameplay was super fun and I love Veronica lol. Anyway), this is actually a pretty interesting characterisation of the Luminary. Not in the sense of "asshole that doesn't give a shit about the feelings of the people that risked their lives to stay by his side" but how far he really is ready to go to undo his mistakes. It's at the very least implied that he blamed himself for Yggdrasil’s fall, and enough to throw away so much and disregard his friends' wishes. I don't believe he didn't think of them; they were all in for saving Veronica and Erdrea before they heard about the consequences, and he probably didn't even hear what they said. He failed at the one thing he was destined to do with terrible consequences, and he's ready to leave his friends, who actively decided to stay by his side despite all hardships on multiple occasions and who said that losing him is too much for them, if it means he can go back. It's that selfish selflessness that's written into his character.

[whiskiijack]

Unfinished, but I can't bring myself to finish. I wasn't happy with how it was turning out, and Rendering was becoming tedious and I don't have the attention span for that really.. i hope it is enjoyed regardless.

[corneille-moisie]

I wanna talk about this twin eagles statue in the entrance of the Kingsbarrow (There are potential spoilers in this post ! It's indicated where they are, but you might want to avoid this post all together if you don't want anything spoiled at all. This being said, hurry ! Play the game ! XD)

There's a lot of imagery going here, but let's begin by the beginning.

The twin eagles is the symbol of Heliodor, right ? It's on its banners, it's a huge golden statue, in the castle, at the bottom of the staircase leading to the throne room, it's on King Carnelian's brooch, it's on the heliodoran guards' capes, and it's on the armour of both Hendrik and Jasper, amongst other things :

Hendrik and Jasper, at this point in the early story, are considered heroes, according to the book found in the house in the far eastern part of town (yes, the one some tourist is looking for, for a side quest), and inseparable, to some extent. I always assumed that the twin eagles were symbolizing the two of them.

But that's also pretty easy to assume, so let's dig a little more.

Mild spoiler alert for Act I after this sentence, as I mention why you're in the Kingsbarrow, what you're fighting in there.

So, two eagles, right ? With weapons. Sitting on an orb.

You get to the Kingsbarrow to retrieve an orb, and to get this orb, you'll need to fight two grim gryphons.

Let's take a look at the weapons on that statue.

A sword, an ax, and a torch. While these can be found in Dragon Quest games since the very first game, I want to point out something else that is going to be a tad bit more spoilerific as I'm going to refer to Act II of the game and your 8th party member. (like... it's weird to only have 7 party members, don't you think ? ;) )

The obvious part here is that both swords and axes are weapons Hendrik can be equipped with, and, sure, you just used a torch to get out of the sewers with Erik, so here's that for direct references, but...

A torch is a symbol for light (duh). Not only is the Luminary someone who can bring the light back to Erdrea after Yggdrasil fell, but he can't do it without the spark of light that Hendrik figuratively becomes by turning Cobblestone into Last Bastion. ("spark of light" being used verbatim by Queen Marina to refer to Hendrik, and again, by (actually) King Carnelian to refer to both Hendrik and the Luminary, both in early Act II)

Then again, and this time, spoilers alert for Act III, after Yggdrasil fell and it is revealed that Jasper is on the bad guy team, Hendrik kind of loses his "twin" knight fellow. But do you know who also turns out to be a knight ? Sylvando. In Act III, Don Rodrigo sends your party to the Kingsbarrow to bring to light that friendship is a very strong weapon. Ultimately, it unlocks a pep power that involves both Hendrik and his ax, and Sylvando and his sword, and which also unlocks the last part of both their skill trees : Fraternity for Hendrik, Chivalry for Sylvando. Friendship/torch + Hendrik/ax + Sylvando/sword = Twin Eagle Statue in the Kingsbarrow lol.

But THEN AGAIN, the whole thing might also be a symbol strictly for Hendrik, as, still in act III (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ->), he feels like it's his duty to fight the ghost of Jasper, so his soul can be put to rest. As a result, Hendrik gets the Twin Eagle Armour, as his old companion's soul is now cleansed from Mordegon's influence, now that they finally shed light on what actually happened.

Now, I think that wraps up this info dump that I didn't realize i would do when I first set foot in the Kingsbarrow... I'm gonna go back to the game lmao. Time to go to Hotto :)

[trainsmash]

a cheerful reunion

[companion to this piece]

bonus that may or may not be reflective of my own feelings

[daezedglownut]

UGHHHHHH I LOVE when games foreshadow shit…

I’m in the Royal Library of Sniflheim, and those three faded books in the study all tell you… a lot 👀

“Of ye forbidden deed: most forbidden……… terrible power………. Time’s shattered……. World…… shalt fall to ruin…..”

“Of spirits and ye plane beyond: this tome concerneth……. Realm……… all but invisible. However within dwelleth, ……..spirits of sprites, faint yet….. mayhap…….. even time itself……….”

“Of ye first age: long, long ago….. age of…… gathered together…….. lo, ye forgotten……… a people lost to time……..”

Really fun looking at this with the knowledge of the rest of the game!