#ffxiv meta

[demonio-fleurs]

I hope it's okay if I reblog with your tags because YES you are completely and 100% correct -- Estinien was always an idealist, even before Alphinaud and the WoL tore Nidhogg's Eyes from his armor, but it was their action that allowed him to actually experiment with it and be conscious in it! I think that, in part, is why he and Aymeric were able to forge such a bond, Aymeric was outwardly idealistic and hopeful and thus represented a part of Estinien he could not actually articulate or give in to, because of how heavy his grief weighed him down.

And when he's around the Scions, particularly the Archons, you can see how their shared experiences and their optimism rubs off on him! His conversation with Thancred and Urianger in Thavnair in the early parts of Endwalker continues to stand out to me, that shared grief and the knowledge of how it can weigh a person down. Y'sthola chides him for not doing his best to not land fatal blows on the Garlean soldiers for the others, and he immediately starts making an effort to not fatally wound them.

Post-Endwalker Estinien isn't out of character to me, like you said characters do not view themselves with perfect clarity, but I also think that Post-Endwalker Estinien is the direct result of being surrounded by other idealists and finally feeling comfortable and able to vocalize that idealism himself.

I find Estinien in the Post-Endwalker patches to be so fascinating, because out of everyone, he is probably the most vocally hopeful and optimistic. That isn't to say that Y'shtola, Vrtra, Zero, and the WoL aren't, but it's Estinien who is constantly reassuring Vrtra-- We will find Azdaja, she is alive, we will find her, and we will bring her back. It's Estinien who suggest to Zero that they-- the "no longer Scions" -- will not stop until they find a way to save the Thirteenth. At every turn, at every misstep, at every roadblock, Estinien stays hopeful and optimistic.

And while some may find it out of character, I actually think it is very much in character for him, and I also think it is the natural endpoint of his character growth post-Dragonsong. Because I think that the moment that Alphinaud and the WoL ripped Nidhogg's eyes from his armor, Estinien became hopeful and optimistic. I just don't think he understood that, and I think the feelings were foreign to him, but he definitely felt them.

Because in spite of his speech to the Scions about how he views the world differently from them, in spite of him saying that he views it as a "realist" whereas they are the dreamers, the optimists, he says to Fordola earlier on "dreams worth fighting for don't die so easily." In the DRG 70 quests, he has hope that Orn Khai, himself, and the WoL will be able to aid Faunehm. Estinien Post-Dragonsong thru Endwalker is hopeful and optimistic, he just isn't ready to admit it yet.

What helps him accept it, what helps him be more openly hopeful and optimistic, is his sacrifice at Ultima Thule. I haven't read the dialogue since playing it for the first time, but based off of my own recollections, I recall him mentioning knowing that he needed to step forward and confront the dragon who was wallowing in regret and remorse. He needed to step forward, and take a risk, and that feeling he felt was I think the moment Estinien became an optimist. Because he knew, instinctively, that by doing so he would be risking his own life, but he would also be paving the way forward for the rest of the Scions.

He had no way of knowing that! No confirmation, nor proof! But in that moment, he had faith, and he had hope, and he had optimism, that in sacrificing himself the others would be able to press forward.

And for Estinien Varlineau-- the pessimist, the realist-- that was enough for him.

[worldoshaking]

I find Y’shtola so interesting; I think she exemplifies some very fascinating dilemmas, but what’s unique about her is that they’re externalised as ways of seeing the world rather than internal emotional states. Her perspective is also a really important aspect of the story and the world.

The most fundamental thing about her is that she’s a scientist. It’s not just what she does, it’s who she is. It represents her strengths, her ambitions, her temperament, and the way she interacts with the world.

Unlike the other scions, she’s a scientist who grew up outside of Sharlayan’s academic structure, and is unbounded by its strictures and politics. She represents unbounded theoretical curiosity, independent of institutions and all their dampening considerations. It’s a beautiful, idealised vision of what science could be, if unbound by considerations like institutional approval and funding. It’s something Y’shtola learned in part from Matoya, who rejected the confines of Sharlayan academia and accomplished stupendous things in her cave.

I think this complements G’raha Tia, who represents an idealised vision of what academia could be: he explores the limits of what people can achieve together if they can throw aside clout-chasing, nepotism, petty politicking, biases, and the other things that cloud the idealism of academic institutions. G’raha is someone who fell in love with what Sharlayan represented, and came back to point out how they fell short of their own ideals. G’raha is someone who works to reform institutions; Y’shtola simply works independently of them, pushing the limits of what one person can accomplish.

Another very scientific characteristic of Y’shtola is her refusal to acknowledge limits: when she finds a thing that can’t be done, she hammers at it until it budges. She is convinced that there are answers to everything, and that science can find them. This is really something that’s fundamental to the scientific method: the idea that there’s always an answer to the question of ’why,’ and that that answer is something we can find and comprehend. What are atoms made of? Why are there only so many fundamental particles? Why do voidgates form? What is the fate of the universe? There is an answer, and she’ll find it. This is part of her initial clash with G’raha; she is insistent on the truth, and doesn’t like his keeping secrets.

She is also committed to seeing the science through, no matter what she’ll learn from it. She was ready to hear the Ea’s answer about the fate of the universe, no matter how terrible it was. And when she finds it, she’ll greet the unknown with delight; when she meets Zero, she looks the void in the face and smiles.

She’s also just a little remote, in the way of one who has spent too long staring into the heart of things. This doesn’t change the fact that she is a brave, steadfast, loyal companion to her friends, and a staunch champion of what’s right in the world. It’s something very personal; she sees things beyond the others’ sight, and her heart is preoccupied with things that are very removed from the considerations of everyday.

The Sharlayans’ performance of scientific objectivity is shown to be rooted in their very human prejudices, something that’s very true of institutional science in our world too. Y’shtola’s objectivity isn’t that sort of cold, inhumane objectivity; it isn’t a pretext for bigotry, or an abdication of responsibility. It’s something much more remote and whimsical, a commitment to a way of approaching things rather than a badge of superiority.

These are all, in a way, things that characterise the WoL, and I think they underlie the curious solidarity that builds between them post-Endwalker. The WoL, in a different way, is someone who doesn’t acknowledge the limitations of common sense, someone who looks truth in the face without flinching.

It’s also a delightful contrast, because the WoL is someone who repeatedly defies the limits of possibility, and that makes it even more interesting that they’re drawn together. Y’shtola is someone dancing at those very limits; the point where the preposterous becomes fact is where scientific discovery is born.

It’s also a very fun way of seeing science. Science as an institution is actually preoccupied with a kind of individualism - with the performance of individual merit, with the idea of the lone genius. (As we see in post-ARR, Alphinaud is misled by the accolades of the Studium to disastrous hubris.) Y’shtola might be fiercely independent, but she also isn’t that lone genius. She is utterly preoccupied with finding the answers, and not at all with any idea of personal success. The thing that lets her transcend her limits, the thing that lets her accomplish more than Matoya could, is friendship. When she works with the Scions, or Nidhana, or Zero, she can accomplish more than she ever could on her own.

I also think it’s very relevant that she’s a woman; in both our world and theirs, academia is largely male-dominated, and a lot of its flaws have to do with upholding that hegemony and not being open to more diverse perspectives. The ideal of the lone genius is overwhelmingly associated with men.

I think there’s something deeply idealistic and joyous about this unfettered spirit of scientific curiosity persisting through and after the events of Endwalker. We met the god of everything and defeated her in a duel; that doesn’t mean we know all the answers, or even all the questions. We cross paths with a far more technologically advanced civilisation, and Y’shtola is still able to have interesting scientific conversations with them. Even if many things about our world are arbitrary and uncaring, Y’shtola holds to her belief in the scientific method, and is still wholly, exuberantly committed to seeking out truths.

[anneapocalypse]

Okay hot take time: If the Archon title is granted to people who have made significant advances in a particular field, they should be giving an Archon mark to Alisaie for her work in curing tempering. Like why haven't they already given it to her, honestly. That is a world-changing scientific achievement. Anyone who achieved something on that level in the real world wouldn't just have a PhD, they'd have a Nobel prize.

[picaroroboto]

Point #1: The first thing we learn about Emet-Selch, even before we learn that Solus zos Galvus is Emet-Selch, is that Solus loved theatre.

Point #2: Emet-Selch plays the villain with mannerisms so over-the-top you'd think he's about to burst into a disney villain-style song and dance number at almost any moment.

Point #3: He's self-aware enough to recognize that he is a villain in your story but a hero to his own people, and that whoever wins the battle will write history to declare the loser the villain.

Point #4: The Tempest, the zone where Amaurot is located, is named for the Shakespeare play of the same name, with other landmarks named after characters from the play. The BGM "Full Fathom Five" is also named for an iconic line.

Point #5: Amaurot feels so empty because it is, in essence, a set for a stage play. After the play is preformed it has no purpose.

Back to Point #1: Emet-Selch really loved theatre.

[emcapi-gaming]

Sphene and Wuk Lamat: A Theory

So... There's something that's been on my mind since I first played Dawntrail. And tbh, I'm surprised that I don't think I've seen anyone else come to the same conclusion, because it was really obvious to me.

Yeah uh... ever since like 10 minutes into meeting Sphene, I've suspected that her and Wuk Lamat are each others shards/reflections.

My initial suspicion was largely based on personality, the way that they immediately clicked and seemed to have a lot in common. And then I was like "wait a fucking second, they have almost exactly the same eye color, if not a perfect match," which pretty much cinched it for me.

(Note: technically - since, as far as we know, the Sphene we met was a recreation without a soul - it would have been the original, living Sphene who was Wuk Lamat's shard.)

It's pretty undeniable that they're set up as narrative foils from a character perspective, but I think it goes beyond that. This line in particular grabbed my attention:

That's... pretty direct.

And that's also the big difference between them: Wuk Lamat is someone who is physically strong and was raised as a warrior; Sphene is neither of these things.

The other thing that's standing out to me is that this whole situation between them, where they have mutually conflicting goals? Where one invades the other's world, even, putting it into peril, for the sake of saving their own?

We've seen it before.

Even including the fact that the main character's reflection is already dead.

And after patch 7.1, I'm only more convinced... because guess what?

I daresay we've seen this before too.

And beyond just the interesting narrative parallels between Sphene & Wuk Lamat and the WoL & Ardbert, the fact that Sphene's story clearly isn't over is making me think that this is going to be relevant.

[capriccio-ffxiv]

... Holy crap

At one point I speculated that Fandaniel's throwaway comment about Zenos being a case where Emet-Selch "finally succeeded" was about Zenos' corporeal aether being as dense as an Ancients'. Not his soul, but his body at least being 2x as dense as the average Source inhabitant (and 14x as anyone from a Shard).

One of the big reasons for the Sundering was that extremely aether-dense people can't interact directly with Dynamis. You can hear Meteion bc your aether is so thin. People turn into monsters bc Dynamis overwhelms and consumes their Aether.

What if Zenos cannot directly interact with Dynamis. At all.

What if THAT'S why everything seems dull and boring to him? There's a whole spectrum of emotion & feeling that he straight up can't feel because his booty too fat his corporeal aether is too thick. But he's still a sundered soul, so part of him still needs Dynamis to feel connected to other people (unlike the Ancients who seem fine?). But his corporeal aether blocks it. The same way that Zodiark's shield kept us from hearing the Endsinger for all those centuries (& by extension the whole universe really), Zenos' thicc aether literally prevents him from feeling connection to others.

This explains why he so easily no-sold the WoL. In addition to supernaturally thick aether, he's also mostly immune to our Power of Friendship crap.

... Mostly.

Because obviously the Ancients still weren't immune to the Endsinger, her effect was just different. They didn't turn into monsters, but their imaginations turned on them, causing their creation magic to manifest ravenous nightmares. In the same way, some part of the WoL's Dynamis was so potent that it broke through. And that's why he became so completely addicted to us. We're literally the only person with powerful enough Dynamis that he can feel any connection at all.

[asha-mage]

I have my gripes with FFXIV but I have to admit the decision to use a longsword as the substitute for a crucifix when making Ishgard's French Catholic aesthetic was artistically fucking brilliant and I still haven't recovered from it almost a decade later.

[lilas]

Also thoughts about Endless!Cahciua having emotions other than happiness, kind of as a tangent from this post:

She never would be happy in Living Memory because exploring and traveling was what made her happiest; her happiness is functionally incompatible to her reality as an Endless

Erenville is obviously dealing with a lot and she has No idea how to handle that, and is either redirecting to other things reiterating her feelings again

This could be that Endless!Cahciua is just acting according to how Cahciua would (several comments from Erenville make it seem that she was dismissive when he was upset)

OR it could that Endless!Cahciua can’t possibly adapt to This New Elene’shypya because Cahciua never met the man Erenville became while he was abroad for three years, so she doesn’t know how to have these new complicated conversations with him

In conclusion, I am sooooo fascinating by their relationship and Cahciua omg, and it makes me so sad that Cahciua never saw for herself how Erenville changed and grew.

[farfromdaylight]

i try not to complain about heavensward. i really do. it's a beloved expansion. people love ishgard. i love ishgard.

however, heavensward FUCKING SUCKS.

listen. so much of heavensward's plot is either badly written or badly paced or both. if you play through it once and don't think about it further, it's a great game. if you even glance back at it, it falls apart like a house of cards.

Actual shit that happens in Heavensward (spoilers):

You fight against the Heavens Ward to prove you're not a heretic. Five minutes later you have to go back to Ul'dah to save Raubahn.

After several levels of exploring Dravania and reaching the Churning Mists, you finally find Nidhogg's lair. You can't get there. You turn around and go back to Ishgard.

While you're fucking about waiting for the manacutters to get done, you go get the sultana back. Literally the entire plot momentum built up from your big road trip across Dravania comes to a dead halt as you go back to Ul'dah.

You slay Nidhogg. You go back to Ishgard. You spend eight quests killing time until the Vault, learn that class warfare is a thing, and fight off one of the Heavens Ward, who BACKFLIPS AWAY FROM YOU.

Immediately after the Vault, you go fight a whale.

The Emperor of Garlemald shows up in the Sea of Clouds just to tell you that you suck.

At the exact moment Y'shtola would be convenient to the plot, she returns.

The archbishop gets to Azys Lla way before you, but helpfully waits until you get there before continuing the plot.

and so on. i'm sure there's more.

here's my problem with heavensward: individually, there are a lot of great plot elements in it. however, they are presented in such a fucking buckwild manner that a lot of them are diminished. let's take the Hilda section for example: it's great to learn about Ishgard's class struggles! Of course this is great worldbuilding! However the actual section where you learn about it feels like (and basically is) filler. You finish the Aery, learn a lot of important Dragon Lore, and come back to Ishgard. You then have to fuck about until you're a high enough level to do the Vault, and in that section you do some of the worst fetchquesting in the game. It is atrocious.

Are there things I like about Heavensward? Absolutely. I fucking love Ishgard. I think the overall worlbuilding is phenomenal. Dragon vs man is a compelling storyline. But my god, the plotting and pacing are SO BAD. You spend an unbelievable amount of 3.0 dealing with the Ul'dah plotlines of post-ARR when you should be fully immersed in Ishgardian politics. It would not have killed you to leave the sultana stuff for HW patch quests, guys.

The best comparison I can make is that it's like if in Shadowbringers, instead of seeing the Meanwhile In Garlemald sections, you instead had to just abandon the First and head back to deal with that shit right before fighting a Lightwarden. It brings the narrative to a dead halt. It just doesn't work.

And like, I get it. It's not easy to write a game like FF14. The fact that later expansions are as well-written as they are is frankly a miracle. This is a huge worldbuild with a ton of plot threads and it's incredible even half of them get wrapped up. But viewed in isloation, Heavensward is one of the most tonally inconsistent parts of the entire story.

[azems-familiar]

okay so this one might be common knowledge, but something i discovered today that is currently blowing my mind:

the "main hub" of Elpis is called Anagnorisis, right?

From the wikipedia article on the term:

"Anagnorisis (/ˌænəɡˈnɒrɪsɪs/; Ancient Greek: ἀναγνώρισις) is a moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery. Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context, not only of a person but also of what that person stood for. Anagnorisis was the hero's sudden awareness of a real situation, the realisation of things as they stood, and finally, the hero's insight into a relationship with an often antagonistic character in Aristotelian tragedy.[1]" (emphasis mine) "In the Aristotelian definition of tragedy, it was the discovery of one's own identity or true character (e.g. Cordelia, Edgar, Edmund, etc. in Shakespeare's King Lear) or of someone else's identity or true nature (e.g. Lear's children, Gloucester's children) by the tragic hero."

Anagnorisis is where we meet both Hermes and Meteion for the first time. Not only is Elpis the site of the WoL and Venat both discovering the "true nature" of the Final Days and Meteion, but it's also the turning point for the WoL to understand Fandaniel as a person, and the decisions he's made that led them to this point. You can also argue that Elpis gives us insight into Emet-Selch, and definitely into Hydaelyn and Her decisions - a non-antagonistic example, but still.

Anyway, that just made me lose my mind a little bit. The amount of subtle things like this the devs slip into the game....

[littlelordalphinaud]

So I think one of the most underutilised thing in FFXIV canon is that the WoL, if they play specific classes, are channelling large amounts of magical energy through themselves.

(I'm mostly thinking of casting classes here, along with WHM/AST)

And, like, even with Hydealyns blessing, human bodies were not designed to channel such energies. That's why you get things like 'Hey if you try and be a BLM without the soul stone, you WILL burn from the inside out!'

And I know it's because they want you to be able to play every class, but just imagine if your class DID effect your character physically.

I was inspired to make this post because I saw a video of someone repairing a small vase via Kintsugi. Which in turn reminded me of the Gabrielle Aplin song of the same name. Which contains one of my all time favourite lines:

All my scars are golden.

See, scar tissue is already modified. I'm no biologist and it's been a while since I properly looked into scars, but scar tissue is different to regular skin, that much I know.

So imagine that being where it's obvious. Your WoLs scars.

A White Mage who emanates this soft white glow from their scars as they cast.

Astrologians that glitter and shimmer and glow as they pull the stars into themselves.

Black mages who's scars darken and seem to be collapsing as they draw on the void.

Red mages who are a mishmash of glowing and collapsing.

These people are pulling powerful forces through their body and you can see it. Even if you know nothing about magic, even if you're just a spectator, you can see how their journey has shaped them, has changed and effected them.

Everyone has scars, after all!

[anneapocalypse]

On wards and the Waking Sands.

Edited to add: Please look at this version of the post, as there's some additional context I neglected to include in the original post.

I can't say whether this was intended, but there's something very interesting, and somewhat heartbreaking, about looking at the Garlean attack on the Waking Sands in light of certain plot points in the Warring Triad storyline.

In the latter, Urianger takes great pains to ward the containment bays on Azys Lla specifically so that the Garleans sniffing around the isles can't get into them and take control of the primals contained within. So certain is he that his wards are impassable by Garlean invaders that when they get past them regardless, he figures out pretty quickly that someone else must have taken them down, and that that someone is Unukalhai.

I wove the ward in accordance with the most closely guarded teachings of the archmages of Sharlayan. Naught was left to chance. Naught.

It's not surprising to me that Urianger, an Archon and arcanist, would have knowledge of such things. What is notable is that there were seemingly no such wards upon the Waking Sands when Livia sas Junius marched through its doors in ARR, slaughtering most of the Scions present and taking Minfilia and several others--those others including two Archons and talented mages--captive.

The Garlean attack has always stood out to me as highlighting the weaknesses in the Scions' operations in ARR. Far from mentioning any magical wards, Minfilia's shock is that Livia knew where to look for them at all. Clearly, the Scions believed their headquarters to be a far better-kept secret than it actually was, and this is well before the defeat of the Ultima Weapon thrusts them into the public eye. (In fact, after playing through this myself for the first time, every time I was called back to the Waking Sands thereafter I kept shouting at my screen, "NO! That location is compromised!" 😂)

It speaks to how the Scions had been operating before and during ARR, I think, that they really seemed to have believed secrecy alone would protect them.

And I can't help thinking of how this particular mistake must have haunted Urianger, in particular. After the bloody banquet, it's noted that he has cast a glamour over the Waking Sands to make it appear abandoned--a spell which Tataru says he has been preparing since the Garlean attack.

Though he rarely speaks of it, I think there's no doubt the attack affected him. I've written before of how I think this incident contributes to Urianger's subsequent downward spiral, considering that prior to the attack we see him socializing with many of the Scions who are later killed by Livia's troops. In light of the magicks he later employs specifically against the Garleans, I cannot help but think he probably holds himself responsible for failing to protect his friends and colleagues, one of many regrets that drive his later actions.

[picaroroboto]

One of the typical imageries associated with the concept of "hope" is the image of light amidst darkness. FF14 does a lot of stuff with light and dark of course but in Shadowbringers they made light a thing of horror so they can't rely on the light image all the time.

Another usual image is a bird - "Hope is a thing with feathers..." from the Emily Dickinson poem. Meteion, the bird, was created with hope, but becomes a thing of despair.

So what's left as the image of "hope" in Endwalker is this:

From the cutscene "Live, Die and Know", where Venat monologues about hope and light everlasting while the camera cuts back and forth between her, blackened with blood, and the WoL succumbing to the Light corruption, both limping and stumbling along their paths. This is the face of hope in FF14 - broken, dying, bloodstained, yet defiant. That's what makes playing the hero in FF14 so damn magnetic.

Early ARR, I was cringing at the cliche chosen one, light vs dark type concepts. Further along I began to doubt Hydaelyn, given her ineffectiveness and the cruelty of the fate she bound the WoL to. But from Elpis to the end of Endwalker and beyond, I was proud, for the first time, to be called a Warrior of Light.

[emcapi-gaming]

i am back on my tinfoil hat bullshit

ok so i know "x is a shard of y" theories are totally overdone but unfortunately i have a very specific flavor of autism that makes me go bonkers over similarities between characters

and i will be honest i'm putting a lot less stock in this one than the Wuk Lamat/Sphene theory in terms of how sure I am that I'm right, but! hear me out! (also even if this turns out to be absolutely nothing, i may still roll with it as a headcanon just for fun :3)

"but emcapi," you say, "they literally just look alike because they're both face 4 fem elezen!"

yes, i do fully admit this one might just be a coincidence!

but it's a really fun coincidence :D

additional points (thank you, Garland Tools, for enabling my tinfoil-hatting):

exact same iris color

exact same lipstick color

same bangs! (which I honestly didn't even realize until I put them side by side)

Now, narratively, this would actually explain a great deal about Shale getting pulled into the Main Character Squad at lightning (har har) speed. Which is that, specifically, I'm 97.5% sure that our next expac is going to be a joint Meracydia/Southern Seas + Void expansion.

Why I'm so convinced:

Fits with "patches playing setup for the second-next expac" pattern: see also, Doman refugees in ARR patches -> Stormblood, Warriors of Darkness in HW patches -> Shadowbringers.

We have very obviously not seen the last of Zero (I MISS MY WIFE, TAILS)

We are SOOOOOO obviously going to Meracydia it's not even funny.

It's like the only destination on Emet-Selch's itinerary we still haven't hit up.

AND we had all that business with the Milallas coming from the South Seas, and using the Mysterious Hourglass to do it, which OBVIOUSLY warrants some investigation.

Huuuge connection between Meracydia + Void via the war with the Allagans (which is how Azdaja got stuck in the Void in the first place)

With the context of all the other hints, specifically having Cloud of Darkness as the first chaotic raid is making me go 🤔🤔🤔 another hint, perhaps?

IN CONCLUSION: i have max brainrot debuff stacks BUT i am definitely on to something with the next expac, and i am either on to something or have made a VERY fun new headcanon with Shale and Cyella/Cylva.

[capriccio-ffxiv]

I strongly prefer it when the Scions *don't* have Ancient counterparts.

I think it means more if they're part of the new souls born to the star either after Zodiark's first summoning or after the Sundering. Which is a whole thing!

Importantly, those were the souls that the Convocation were going to sacrifice to Zodiark to bring back the Ancients they lost.

To me, I think it's vastly important that G'raha, Y'shtola, Urianger, Thancred, the twins, that all of them are people Emet-Selch would throw away without a second thought. That to him, you're the only one worth half a damn... And broken as you are, only half a damn. And before he lets himself accept that you really are what's left of Azem, you're just someone else he's convinced isn't a person.

But I think these are the very souls Azem left the Convocation to save, even if Azem still didn't want to break the world. And these are the souls that Venat and the Twelve did break the world to save.

To me that's so much more important than any reincarnation romance (much as I adore that kind of story too). That to Azem and to you, these people matter anyway.

[demonio-fleurs]

I find Estinien in the Post-Endwalker patches to be so fascinating, because out of everyone, he is probably the most vocally hopeful and optimistic. That isn't to say that Y'shtola, Vrtra, Zero, and the WoL aren't, but it's Estinien who is constantly reassuring Vrtra-- We will find Azdaja, she is alive, we will find her, and we will bring her back. It's Estinien who suggest to Zero that they-- the "no longer Scions" -- will not stop until they find a way to save the Thirteenth. At every turn, at every misstep, at every roadblock, Estinien stays hopeful and optimistic.

And while some may find it out of character, I actually think it is very much in character for him, and I also think it is the natural endpoint of his character growth post-Dragonsong. Because I think that the moment that Alphinaud and the WoL ripped Nidhogg's eyes from his armor, Estinien became hopeful and optimistic. I just don't think he understood that, and I think the feelings were foreign to him, but he definitely felt them.

Because in spite of his speech to the Scions about how he views the world differently from them, in spite of him saying that he views it as a "realist" whereas they are the dreamers, the optimists, he says to Fordola earlier on "dreams worth fighting for don't die so easily." In the DRG 70 quests, he has hope that Orn Khai, himself, and the WoL will be able to aid Faunehm. Estinien Post-Dragonsong thru Endwalker is hopeful and optimistic, he just isn't ready to admit it yet.

What helps him accept it, what helps him be more openly hopeful and optimistic, is his sacrifice at Ultima Thule. I haven't read the dialogue since playing it for the first time, but based off of my own recollections, I recall him mentioning knowing that he needed to step forward and confront the dragon who was wallowing in regret and remorse. He needed to step forward, and take a risk, and that feeling he felt was I think the moment Estinien became an optimist. Because he knew, instinctively, that by doing so he would be risking his own life, but he would also be paving the way forward for the rest of the Scions.

He had no way of knowing that! No confirmation, nor proof! But in that moment, he had faith, and he had hope, and he had optimism, that in sacrificing himself the others would be able to press forward.

And for Estinien Varlineau-- the pessimist, the realist-- that was enough for him.