#god i have to replay shb that was

[noxtivagus]

deleting some screenshots rn n oh my god looking back at shb I LOVE THE CONCEPT OF EULMORE SO MUCH

[impossible-rat-babies]

I think I’ve figured out for me that I love thinking about EW. it’s a joyous expansion to think about and to sit in and i adore so much of what it means to eyrie. but ShB is the expansion that I wanna replay between the two of them most of all

[autumnslance]

Since you're very knowledgeable about meta and lore for XIV, I was wondering if you've heard much about the original ideas for XIV and how it was supposed to connect to XIII and XV? I recently reran the Antitower and it seemed like they were really setting up a dark storyline for Hydaelyn and Minfilia that potentially extends all the way to ShB. There's the art of Minfilia in crystal chains and the creepy dolls are such a random boss but might be a callout to the Minfilias sacrificed on the First. I know XV was originally going to have an evil god pretending to be good with a connection to a crystal, and I recall hearing something similar about XIII. The fact that Venat also uses Noctis' Armiger has been fascinating me since EW. It's all got me curious, but I'm not sure if it's something that's been discussed in interviews or by fans.

Nothing that I'm overtly aware of; different teams worked on XIII and XV, and while all FF's tend to reference one another in order to tie the series together, XIV as the MMO amusement park/love letter to the franchise as a whole tends to refer back to the other games frequently, borrowing concepts, characters, and rough plot elements. Also there's a lot of overlap in production times, hence the crossover events for XIII and XV we did have before (the latter one a couple times) upon those games' releases.

As for events in Heavensward with Minfilia, I don't think Hydaelyn was ever meant to be "evil", but She was always holding things back and giving Her specific point of view. Minfilia's chains can also simply mean the shackles of duty and binding herself to Hydaelyn the way she did, not necessarily anything malevolent on Hydaelyn's part.

It's also important to remember that the Zodiark/Hydaelyn storyline was inherited from 1.x, kinda fiddled with in the background...and then really delved into and overhauled while we players saw a "break" from the meta plot in Stormblood. Ishikawa took over as Writing Lead and adjusted course for Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

So there's some fine details from ARR and HW that don't quite fit or make sense now after ShB and EW, though the devs have gone back and massaged a few things (like in the Lahabrea solo duty post-Ultima Weapon) or did their best to explain it away. I'm currently (very slowly) replaying EW on my miqo'te alt, and the Watcher gives the very Ghostly Obi-Wan "truth from a certain point of view" talk when the Scions meet with him on the moon. And later, after meeting Venat, we also get the idea that to preserve the time loop and make sure we got to where we needed to be, She was playing chess games on what She had to say and do, and when, as Hydaelyn.

And the writers are very fond of biased/not always accurate in-world knowledge, in order to give themselves wiggle room; the new lorebook really emphasizes that.

The Watcher's relevant dialogue, with WoL's options:

The Watcher: Indeed, there was a faction opposed to Zodiark's creation. But their aim was never to unmake Him. The Watcher: They understood the continued preservation of the natural order was dependent on His very existence. Until we could identify and address the underlying cause of the Final Days, He would need remain, for His departure would set in motion those apocalyptic forces once more. The Watcher: Hydaelyn recognized this as well. And so, rather than destroy, She sundered Zodiark, Herself, and the star into lesser reflections, that She might confine Him in this place. WoL Dialogue Options & Watcher's Responses: I could have sworn She beseeched me to banish the Darkness. The Watcher: Perhaps She did. But as with all beings, intent is not always in accord with spoken word. -- Then what She told me in the aetherial sea was false…? The Watcher: That the two once dwelled as one until Zodiark grew hungry for power, upsetting the balance twixt Them...? Not quite a lie, though a rather gross embellishment. The Watcher: But knowing what you know now, you must surely realize why She might opt to obfuscate and mislead. --- The Watcher: Hydaelyn and Zodiark are both constructs of man. Approximations of perfection limited by our own imperfections.

If anyone does have more information on the meta of XIV's interactions and influences back and forth with XIII and XV, or the original plans for XIV's Zodiark/Hydaelyn story (might be a good question for Anonymoose) by all means speak up; I wasn't really as active in XIV at the time when those other games were current.

But it also bears mentioning that while there's a lot of familiar concepts, names, and imagery in XVI, which was created by the same team as XIV, like all the other games before it that is normal to make it part of the franchise, and so XVI is very much its own world and story, not reliant on XIV, nor is XIV reliant upon it.

Though I for one am looking forward to that crossover and getting my Torgal mount and minion and hopefully Cid Telamon's theme for my orchestrion.

[corgibardballads]

I absolutely love our dragon dad. I loved him the second we met him. But the lore between us and Midgardsormr is also interesting because it has changed context over time but also is so vague that I think we can interpret things the way we want until the writers fully figure out what they want to do. But I really hope he isn't gone gone. Every time we get any dragon lore I always expect to see a tiny Midgardsormr pop up again and sit on our shoulder just like old times. Replaying our first meeting is interesting because I feel like a lot of it has either changed or perhaps been given knew meaning over time.

I appreciate that dragons are almost eternal, super powerful, and depicted as flawed as the Greek gods because lets be honest... this is the worst take possible lol. Even Ysayle shares this take which is so interesting. Punishing the son for the sins of the father is 0/10. "This man just killed someone! He also has a one year old son. Clearly he is equally guilty and must also be killed!"

This is kinda interesting these days because it's kinda both? On the one hand we are the shard of Azem and we learned in Shb and EW that Hydaelyn's blessing only affects protecting your aether but has nothing to do with our inherent strength and unique abilities. So presumably we can attribute our uniqueness to being a shard rather than Hydaelyn's blessing. On top of that we learn in the EW quest where we inhabit another soldier's body that our ability to find things in the right place at the right time is also inherent to us (it seemed to imply we are unique as a whole rather than just our soul specifically). On the other hand we were technically chosen by Hydaelyn because meeting Venat in Elpis let her know which incarnation of us to specifically look out for and guide us. Anyway, just a cool continuation of how the lore grows.

So I kinda wonder about this... Venat says her magic simply guards one's aether from being altered or corrupted. Midgardsormr wouldn't have that power when he entered into his covenant with us and blocked our connection to Hydaelyn. So the primals we fought should have been a threat to us, but they weren't. I surmise that we may inherently have aether protection independent of Venat's magic. Considering what we know about Azem's role, or I guess how little we know, it seems logical to me that with everything they would be exposed too it's likely all Azems develop some sort of magic to protect their aether. And from that I would infer that we inherit it as a trait rather than being reliant on Hydaelyn's magic and that our connection to Hydaelyn is mostly about guidance to prevent Ascian plots. Granted this is speculation, but I feel it seems logical given what very little information we have.

As a dragoon this was written for me specifically to enjoy. But really I always felt that our LB3 was just momentarily fusing our aether with Midgardsormrs to abso-fucking-lutely wreck someone.

I was wondering about this bit too. If he fedon Hydaelyn's essence to regenerate and she is gone. It's possible that Midgardsormr's only connection to this world now if our covenant with him. It's possible that when we die, if he isn't able to regenerate enough to at least have his tiny form, he could just straight up die with us. Now they could change this later, but I think it's kinda cool if it stays that way.

Haha yeah. Yep crazy. Hey can we keep a little bird perch in here? Like no reason homie, just in case a lil guy wants to have a lil sit.

[violet-amet]

rant rant rant.

one thing i really dislike about the ffxiv eng translation, is how much content is either rewritten or lost in translation. case in point, fray with the drk quests. their entire existence to me is a ??? but supposedly, if what people have written in tv tropes is correct, fray is a “living” being that hangs with the wol through out the quests. also, god, i forgot so much of their story too, because i never had the chance to really sit down and truly, truly read it, do to speedrunning up to shb to catch up to my buds. if i could, id like to replay it properly, by sitting down and actually reading everything. hhh ah well.

[elizabethrobertajones]

6. What did they think of Hydaelyn in the beginning? Did they change their mind about her since then?

🐸

Oh, poor Frog was so suspicious.

She had studied the arcane and got sent on a scholarship all the way to the Arcanists' Guild in Limsa, everything seemed normal, and then she falls into this weird semi-secret semi-political semi-mythological organisation that answers to this massive floating crystal she'd never heard of and this strange creator figure who needed explaining like she was a mystery who had recently been discovered? The phrasing of all the initial scion dialogue was just red flags galore, especially since you get so much embedded 12 worship in the lore it's not hard to see that Eorzea only knows and cares about them.

Like, to be clear, the fact that this organisation seemed to be supported by the local government made her dear sweet lawful good perspective on the world assume this was Legit Somehow so she should absolutely do all their missions for the greater good, but the WHY of it all... They had all this Secret Knowledge about things which literally did not figure into the common worldview? If it was normal that why the heck were you the only people who knew and cared about Hydaelyn when everyone else swore by the Twelve and Frog was blessed by Halone and brought up a good Rhalgr-fearing citizen? It's weird. She pretty much assumed they were going to turn out to be a strange apocalypse cult or like, worshipping something from the Void but well-meaning or... or...

And then Hydaelyn started weakening post-Prae and no longer talking to her and they went to all this trouble to reach her, and we were learning more about the ascians, so while I, Lizzy, was beginning to be suspicious that this was about to be a big anime It Was Aliens All Along (hence Middy and Hydaelyn being buds, since aliens was ALREADY an explanation barely relevant to another plotline), and Hydaelyn was a sentient idk unborn planet core if aether was where planets came from and she was a big old chunk of aether, the way I could see Frog rationalising this was to assume that Hydaelyn was some sort of Good Ascian and this was deeply suspicious but she'd go along with it to bear out the plan until things became apparent, since they WERE helping and Hydaelyn clearly cared. But also. Like, from the Anti-tower onwards Frog was just assuming she'd eventually kill Hydaelyn too and was making her peace with it. NOT helped by Warriors of Darkness interlude around that time.

Anyway, I had already decided Frog was going to be deeply suspicious and susceptible to Hydaelyn-doubting before I started ShB, so while *I* was figuring out the story in absolute glee, poor old Frog was lacking a ton of context and genre savviness and ability to read tropes only available from a player level, so I did unfortunately end up in a situation where on my first playthrough I'm picking dialogue options where Frog is like 'Welp I think Hydaelyn is suss as fck and I will kill her if asked' I'm already on the edge of my seat like "Oh.... noooo" and biting my nails about how things will play out.

It made EW extremely fun XD I sobbed all through a certain cutscene and then replayed it later when levelling Wyss and sobbed all over again, which is really rare for me crying in cutscenes a second time. I think only Ardbert and Seto have ever got me on a replay aside from that. And not ugly sobbing :P

I think at the end of the day, Frog now feels overwhelming love and gratitude on a personal and cosmic scale, ironically now all the truth is out, she feels towards her the way someone might feel towards a god, even though she never believed in her.

[girlbob-boypants]

I love love love azure i should have asked before: how does his relationship with Ysayle develops? Also: what did he feel when Ryne takes Shiva into herself and it all goes wrong? 👀

GOD okay good questions lemme shift into the right mode *puts Return to Oblivion on*

OKAY SO

Ysayle and Azure start off as regretful enemies. This is back when Azure was a lot more full of hope and concern (SHB fucks him up and honestly he becomes a lot more of the weary hero then)

But both of them definitely have a fascination with the other's summoning and channeling abilities (and honestly Ysayle's Shiva creation was just a modernization of the trance empowerment but on a lot more aether)

When they start traveling together Azure is a lot more keen to listen to her and follow her ideas than he is Estinien (who gets told off a lot frankly. Azure has no time for his rudeness)

I'd have to replay it to *really* get into the nitty gritty of their relationship and details cause frankly i remember so little of hw beyond the basics and that I loved it (and also that Ysayle's death was trash writing)

But I can say that Azure figured out well before the reveal that Ysayle's Shiva couldn't possibly have been the original. He wasn't sure how to approach the topic tho. I hc there's a lot more questions asked and answered about the relationship between primal Shiva and Ysayle (like how they work and how they're connected and what she does beyond possession for fights) and honestly Azure probably helps with her connection and channeling it to show Ysayle how she can channel the ice magic without needing a full possession

(Also how fucked is it that they just never explore her echo or her primal? We deserved so much more Ysayle ugh. The fact that Estinien gets to live and join the Scions and have a story but she doesn't. It's really telling of SE's priorities)

As for Ryne Shiva...

Azure gave her a crash course in summoning and channeling primal aether when she suggested the idea. He hated that she wanted to do it but he had trouble arguing with her because she was determined to do it, so he did what he could.

He fully expected it to go wrong (not that he told anyone) but was quite shocked at *how* wrong it went. I mean being frozen in ice and nearly dying is a shock when you're so used to surviving against gods and primals.

The terror of thinking he wasn't going to be able to save her was worse though. Pure relief when Gaia freed him. And so much guilt at having to beat up his daughter to save her.

If anything that's probably why he had so much trouble in that fight and slipped up enough to get frozen. He was holding back out of fear of actually hurting her

Once Gaia had her turn of fussing, Azure also fussed over Ryne. Much to her frustration as he was literally bleeding and injured while healing *her* with physicks.

[mmorpg-escapism]

Since this is a replay... I have to give the Exarch *some* props for keeping his act up for so long after we get there.

Knowing what I do about the ending to ShB, I'm amazed that he doesn't drop the charade when the WoL asks about G'raha during the Crystarium tour... His internal thoughts must have been chaotic, like "oh my god she remembers me but for this to work at all I can say NOTHING. wait, what if it's a different version of me?"

[thecat-inthehat]

my screencaps folder is sitting pretty at over 2.6k caps that have yet to go into my main XIV folder and be sorted. Most of them are literally just msq recap photos,,, dear god how big will it get before EW drops. I’ve made peace with the idea that I’ll probably not get through all the expansions before EW drops. That being said, I mostly just need to replay HW -- it’s been about 3 years since I’ve last touched it in any serious capacity, and my memories of it are extremely hazy compared to SB and SHB. I’m hoping I’ll come out of it liking the expansion a bit more, but as it stands it’s my least favorite out of all of them for reasons that are somewhat hard to articulate.

My very first FF was Final Fantasy Tactics. It kickstarted my love for the Ivalice Alliance, and by extension, fantasy politics. It was also extremely unfair to the rest of the series, because for the longest time, I expected them all to be the same way, or have a greater emphasis on politics or grounded conflict and faction warfare, with extremely complex characters with suspect motivations.

Replaying the patches for 2.x really does crystallize to me why I had such a problem with Heavensward the first time around. The 2.x patches are extremely political, between Ul’dah uprisings, Doman refugee politics in 2.2, the greater focus on Ishgardian machinations, etc. In short, I love this series of patches a lot. I live for political drama, how characters interact, and the penultimate event of being accused of regicide and having to flee to a foreign country? [mwah] that shit was good.

So imagine my surprise and disappointment when Heavensward turned out to be more of a road trip through Dravania, bickering between characters who were sworn enemies, with little and less in the way of actual Ishgardian high house politics. I mean, sure, there’s some, near the beginning, or later during the events after the Aery, but... nothing like the lead up to Heavensward. Added to the fact that the strange pacing had you dealing with the Sultana and the Ul’dah plot every now and again, and I just... didn’t really have a great time. I still enjoyed it, I liked it a lot better than what shitshow SWTOR was going onto, but... I really did just end up being like “elves and their fuckin problems, man”.

Really, the only saving grace of Heavensward for me was Ysayle. And Then. [scrubs face]  I didn’t much care for the HW patch cycle at all, largely because Ysayle was so forgotten, and I found the Warrior of Darkness stuff weirdly stupid (oh how times have changed), and didn’t care much about Ishgard after they had killed off my favorites. I certainly didn’t care enough about Estinien to save him. (3.4 was tricky for me, because I actually didn’t like the WoD plot at all, felt like it was completely out of no where; but then I also enjoyed having Yda and Papalymo back and a focus on what the rest of Eorzea was doing.)

Like. To give you an idea of what I had initially thought -- I thought Aymeric and Lucia were going to be vaguely analogous to Delita and Valmafra. Boy howdy was I wrong.

I’ve learned to appreciate HW anew with the help of some friends here and there, or by taking it to RP and fixing various issues, as well as getting me to appreciate characters in a different light (Estinien, Aymeric), but I still have this lingering dissatisfaction with the expansion. I think it’s actually one of the reasons why I enjoyed Stormblood so much -- Heavensward had lowered my expectations on getting an expansion based around politics, and then SB was politics through and through.

I’m absolutely not saying that Heavensward was bad -- as it stands it’s a rather good story, and I do enjoy it a great deal. It’s just that what I was expecting and what I got were so wildly dissimilar that it’s hard to get past even now, five years later. In those five years though, I’ve grown and changed a lot, and so has the story of XIV. So I just... want to give it another chance. I’m not expecting to come out going “HW is the best”, but I want to be able to like it on it’s own merits, not because a friend got me interested in a niche concept that we dragged kicking and screaming out of the 2 lines it got in the main plot.

Anyways, I’m about to go fight Shiva and get stepped on, cheers

[hikari-ni-naritai]

Fair, far, funnily enough, I think that hardship made me not dislike her as a character? Ike, im not upset when she shows up or anything. Though dw, you arent missing much, its mostly learning the lesson that her life goal, revolution, isnt a magical fixit, which is ineresting at first. BUT I look forward to the role quests then! Fordola felt somewhat underutilizedin SB! Though you mention ShB and EW, I gotta wonder what you think of HW.. Its in some ways not as deep as those later teo, and espcially the dialogue is just improved massively with animstions and writing etc., but I did quite like HW... Som things werent that great like Ysayles final stand which was anticlimactic, but the worldbuilding with the story was great imo! Especially the point where frivolous Emmannelain (spelling hard) learns that just gestures of good will mean little, and the intracacies of a country built on lies still having much to be proud of and how delicate that balance is.. On top of that the.journey with Alphi, Estinien and Ysayle was wonderful... god I wonder how ya boy Aphinaud wouldve been if HW dint happen, scary... anyhow, thank for talking with me about all this!! It wasvery interesting :)

my memory of heavensward is worse than my memory of stormblood lmao. i want to replay it but like. as of right now my opinion is that the ff14 story has gotten progressively better every expansion. its fucked up that my memory is this bad when i started playing the game like. right before shadowbringers came out. like i have no excuse i should remember the story better. but i was kind of rushed through everything and i spent most of my time doing side quests for people and doing random bullshit. regrettable. again, one day i am going to redo the story and remember everything better. until then, stormblood beats heavensward by virtue of More Girls Who Dont Die. im glad we destroyed the church but i wouldve preferred if a girl had done it.

[mxdotpng]

i just got to the part in shb on my replay where the exarch is revealed to be g'raha tia and. god. fucking hell. that would have been the best twist ive ever seen if the fandom new how to tag their fucking spoilers

[fheythfully]

Putting all my thoughts on the 5.3 MSQ under the cut. Beware of course of spoilers! Overall I really enjoyed the patch. There were a lot of times where I sounded like an excited dinosaur.

So first things first, the way the patch started with the kids was so cute. I was expecting more with the Ardbert-esque kid, especially when he said he wanted to adventure with friends because he felt like he was missing something... but then they didn’t? I’m not sure what the point of that line of his was then. Ardbert’s soul is inside ours, and also has been shown to have moved on, but I wonder if some fragment of it--the part that is bound to the specific world’s Lifestream--can be reborn? Anyway. A bit bummed we didn’t get more with that train of thought but it was cute nevertheless. Also, apothecary. I was going “IS THIS A HINT?” the moment the kiddo said she wanted to be one as a WoL.

Also, I am totally writing a shortfic of the twins, Satella and Ryne hanging out in the Crystarium library with Moren bringing them books of interest while they sneak in tea and snacks. Ryne falls asleep and is eventually found by Thancred. Alisaie teases him for being a doting father. When everyone leaves, Satella is left cozily snuggled up as the evening turns feeling almost like home at the Arcanist’s Guild.

I really liked the bit where Alisaie’s desire to surpass the WoL and competitive nature is shown, and that some part of it is due to insecurity. I love the character depth and growth SE gives her over the patches. I just about had a heart attack when she started getting woozy with a noise in her head.

Elidibus feeling summoned by the WoL and seeing an Amaurotine in their stead gave me feelings, because it means we are whole enough now to form some sort of connection to the Ascians. Only sundered ones are left now though, so I wonder if that will still stay true.

I did have a heart attack at hearing Thancred collapsed. I was not expecting him to be okay when we got back to see him. Dawn’s Respite scene was very sobering and set me up for something entirely different than the ending we got (thank god).

Alisaie being stubborn and sullen with the Exarch made me wonder if she’s seeing the past with Louisoux in him, and Alphinaud’s comment about how she handled their grandfather leaving all that well all but confirmed it. That’s very sweet.

I made a very loud note as I was playing at the fact that a Rejoining soul must recognize its part on the Source as itself. Not sure if that was just for the Exarch’s case (though there are comments about how we and Ardbert fused very easily too) but I have Filed This Away.

Seeing Shtola collapsed gave me another heart attack but she’s definitely possessed of nine lives. The duty with Elidibus was fantastic, though the lack of voice acting caught me off guard (covid? are duties never voiced?). Fighting the baby Scions made me full of glee and then it got even better from there. Answers playing over the city, and then the HW theme, and then SB--fantastic. I especially paused when it started snowing. I appreciate a lot what Elidibus was doing, which was trying to show to us that the people who seem so ancient and recreated only as puppets had once meant something to him and his own. The fight was a lot of fun. I took a screenshot of berserk-Ardbert for kicks.

Also, the bit where he calls you by your name, and the name is switched from Elidibus to Ardbert. My heart. I have a lot of notes about this for future writing.

Elidibus as Zodiark’s heart and primal weren’t a big surprise as it’s been confirmed before (I think?) BUT he’s basically the primal for the idea of the Warrior of Light and I think that is magnificent. I still don’t have a full grasp on Elidibus as shown in this patch: his memories are fractured, whether by age or Zodiark; he’s driven both by his own ambition and Zodiark’s influence. He’s all over the place and I’m going to have to take better measure of him as I replay everything in NG+.

I have a note that says, “Ella why are you picking up random things off the ground that your enemies have dropped???” but it all turned out even better than okay. I don’t understand how he could have dropped all those Convocation crystals other than as a plot point but whatever. It was a great sequence. “All that remains is to pray. To pray that we will one day meet again, beneath a blue sky.” Made me tear up. The twisting of the Convocation from the gentle, kind Amaurotines to what they are today is brutally heart breaking.

I made a note of how the trees in Amaurot are starting to wither--I am not sure if we’ve always had that? But if not, definitely a small sign of Hades’ magic fading?

Bear with me now but I CAN’T STOP SCREAMING ABOUT AZEM. I of course didn’t get the title right (my 14th is Altima), but I got the duty/job so almost right. My Altima is the Shepherd, though to the souls on the planet living and departing to create and live alongside the Lifestream. The entire scene with Hyth had me shaking in my chair with excitement over how perfectly it described my headcanon 14th--down to her wandering the planet when she wasn’t in the city. Granted it fits with all our WoLs and is specifically made to be so, but I am so excited. Not sure what I’ll do with this when I write, whether I will alter my canon to fit the game or plow on ahead, but we’ll see. I’m just so excited. And the new TITLE fits my OCs to a T. God, thank you, SE. I also love that we are the “sun” and can’t wait for the future connections and theories about the 14th and Azeyma and Azim.

“After all, I cannot say whether I act of my own volition or by the will of my recreator!” Made me laugh-cry.

Scions confirmed that seeing Amaurot awoke a great grief in them, which was then supported by the random Eulmore NPC crying at the sight of it. So, it’s not even reliant on how whole your soul is: everyone who sees it feels something, a soul-genetic memory, maybe? I can’t wait to use this. Also makes me wonder if this is why in the patch the Scions are more wont to encourage you to talk things out with Elidibus, as in SHB they were pretty set against Emet-Selch.

The new dungeon was okay. I need to replay it again and look around more (is there a hint of Hildibrand there??). The Necromancer and Berserker class, though the latter may be Warrior same way Arcanists are called Ink Mage, made me pout a little. I want Necromancer. Also, THIER White Mages get Protect? Pffft.

I didn’t take any notes for the trial but. It was brilliant. The run through Crystal Tower with the Exarch was a wonderful callback (there were so many callbacks, it was great) and then when he told us to go ahead I was like, you better mean it that you don’t plan to play your trump card unless we’re present! The trial itself was breathtaking. When the Amaurotine first showed up I thought it was Azem, then when they snapped their fingers I was like cool we can do that too, and then they did the Emet-Selch wave and I lost it. HOW!? Shtola has a theory that even she admits is far fetched but. Wow. I am wondering which one it may be: Emet-Selch truly somehow having his soul live (we were just in the space where Ascians’ souls go between bodies) and assisted us; or was he called by Azem’s crystal as a memory; or was it a memory entirely? Just. That cameo. I miss you, Emet-Selch. For yours is the seat of the fourteenth broke me also and I’m just all over the place. Elidibus as the Warrior of Light was great.

I don’t understand why he went Baby in the end there. I can’t imagine the Convocation recruited and sacrificed a child. My headcanon is that it’s just meant to represent his childlike devotion and drive to his goals. He wanted to help his brothers and sisters so badly he detached himself from Zodiark. Seeing him sitting there cradling the crystals and talking about how it’s a beautiful day and they’re not there to see it was heartbreaking. The Amaurotines lost so, so much--and there’s no way to bring any of it back. I am glad the Unsundered have finally a chance to rest.

The goodbye scene with Ryne was a little lacking to me. I wanted Thancred to hug her, damn it. At least he told her he’s proud of her. She’s so brave with how she tries not to cry before them. She’s coming into her own, with her own ideals, but also so like Minfilia’s that it made my heart full. I will act as her post moogle to Thancred any time, kupo.

Also the one line she has in Twine about how Gaia is her friend who will be there for her is sweet and I laugh at the idea of Gaia’s reaction.

Okay, so, the ending. Probably the thing I did not expect at all. I expected death. No one died. The animations were beautiful, and Alisaie was such a joy to watch. Just. I don’t have words for it. I was so overcome with happiness at how perfect they all were: Alisaie sinking into her chain in a sulk, the Archons fondling their weapons, Alphinaud with tea and a book. Alisaie jumping off to go find a fight and Alphinaud’s brotherly exasperation. The banter between Urianger and Y’Shtola. My heart is so, so full.

On to the topic of the Exarch, which I did not expect to have this many feelings on: first of all, I expected him to die. We all did. How can one man survive SO many death flags!? When our WoL ran out of the Stones like a wound up mammet I was there with her, heart pounding praying for it to have worked. I am bummed that we didn’t get to experience him actually waking, but that means I can write about it... which I already did, actually. Because: I came out of this with a very unexpected, slowly unfurling Ella/G’raha ship. This was a surprise because ARR G’raha was not someone I even remembered all that well, as I played CT when it came out, but I remember thinking he was a bit too immature for romantic ships; and the Exarch always felt too distant and too much. I was fond of him in SHB but in a passing way, also because I was a little bitter that he put the Scions in such danger in the first place (though I understand all the good that’s come as a result, like uncovering the true Ascian plots). Seeing him at the end there, as a fusion of G’raha and the Exarch, somehow turned my view of him on its head and in that moment, I could easily see Ella and him running off and having proper adventures together. The driving attraction to all my ships is a form of shared experience, or at least understanding of what it’s like to bear a heavy burden on your shoulders. The Exarch was again, too much in his role, and I couldn’t see Ella feeling comfortable being close with him. But now, with this ending? Watching the two of them run off together? Oh, I am excited.

I even wrote four pages of fluff on how he got those bobby pins in his hair and I never write fluff. Please look forward to it being posted soon.

Lastly: Ardbert. If you’ve been around my blog long enough, you’ll know that I’ve been an Ardbert shipper since HW. SHB was so good to me in that regard. Personally, I got closure regarding him in the scene of him offering us his axe and was happy with it. I was overjoyed to see him get closure with Seto now, too. I’m not happy with Elidibus using his body and then tearing it apart as he did, but: it made for great angst and sometimes that’s actually okay with me. The confirmation that he can talk to and through us is interesting and I imagine that he does so rarely, as his soul is finally at rest with his friends--where it truly belongs. He lets us live our life, and a part of him is always with us, now. I imagine him and Ella at one point having a conversation about her burgeoning feelings for G’raha, as in my canon she’s never felt quite a strong enough connection or level of comfort with anyone but Ardbert, and him giving her his “blessing” and encouraging her that it’s okay to chase after the comfort and happiness G’raha can bring her. Especially since all of SHB she was in a very very bad place and this ending we got gives me such a sense of respite, no matter how fleeting.

Speaking of fleeting: Zenos and Asahi/Fandaniel. I am still hoping Zenos gets more interesting because I just can’t bring myself to like him, and seeing him destroy the Garlean empire before we even step foot into it is making me a little pouty. Fandaniel is interesting on a few accounts: he’s a sundered Ascians, so what will that mean? Clearly he’s been unhappy with the Unsundereds’ plans. He’s also pretty crazy for “the bringer of order”, if we follow the FF12 Espers. We didn’t get a lot so I am hesitantly interested. But also, Asahi? I hate that kid...

My last thoughts on this are: the Ascian storyline was meant to come to an end with this patch, but clearly we’re still getting content. So I am hoping that was for the Unsundered Ascians and we’ll find out more about the summon of Hydaelyn and all that. I... have exhausted myself typing all this. Wow.

BUT I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THIS PATCH AND WILL REPLAY THAT HAPPY ENDING MANY TIMES. I can’t wait for the future.

[astroellipse]

guess :)

it’s ffxiv. of course it is. you can go now.

anyways. i created a new character and am waiting to queue for Castrum Meridianum and of course eventually Praetorium so I have plenty of time to write :)

I made an alt for a few reasons. First and foremost is trying to make better sense of ARR, since they were so so bad at explaining things. Also to try and figure out why people liked HW as much as they did. And just to replay SB and ShB because I Like Them :). Second reason is talking to all the side characters between quests, since I didn’t do that until... SB? ShB? Can’t remember. Third reason is because I wanted to make a short guy so I can play around with male armor and see what it feels like to not have some ridiculous scaling. He’s a midlander hyuy and originally he was made just to see if it was possible for there to be a hyur I don’t immediately hate, and it worked! Apparently the problem was it feels like every single person uses face option 1, including plenty of NPCs (Ardbert :/), which... it just looks weird now. To me that’s Ardbert’s face. idk man. Also he’s my height to give myself a better scale of how tall everyone’s supposed to be. AND. he fits into my little personal narrative I have with Secret, my main, but I will not explain that right now. he fits into my favorite archetype of “funny little man”. will kill you with a smile but not in an edgy kind of way. i adore the voice option i gave him the laugh is great.

I think the issue I have with Hyurs, midlanders specifically (though I have separate issues with highlanders) is that they look so inexpressive. Their eyes look glassy. It’s weird. My alt has this problem too a bit but I at least like the shape of his eyes, and having small pupils remedies it just a little bit. Maybe it’s that the glare is so apparent in their eyes specifically?

oh thank god it finally popped. granted. there are many cutscenes in this one too I think. I will be able to write again soon.

I will get a pic of him eventually. For posterity. Currently he’s wearing incredibly bargain bin glam (relatively speaking, the MSQ is flooding me with gil), but it’s at least better than... idk the artifact armor. Not that Secret has much of anything impressive either... I’m not very good at glam :(. Her DRK set is fine though. that’s just a mishmash of dungeon/tomestone armor :/

Anyhow. Particularly the speaking to characters between quests part really got me. The Waking Sands massacre hit a lot harder now that I know who the people were that died... the Baldesion duo, Arenvald’s friends the Miqo’te and Elezen, that supposed previous Scion and the masked man who I never actually learned the identity of. ALSO!!! I didn’t even REALIZE Arenvald was around from the very beginning!!! I love getting to see his own little personal story here!! And that he didn’t die with the rest!!!!! Seeing him fail Noraxia... I forget if we see more of him later here. Like in the beginning of the Rising Stones. I have no memory of him from before he became relevant to the plot.

There. that miserable nightmare’s done, now onto the second one! This one’s only a... 28 minute wait... even longer than the last one... huh

Back to what I was saying. I think that instead of all this stupid padding and filler some of the quests should have been dedicated to endearing us to the rest of the Scions. Including the main cast. Like, they had the material. Some of them have mini stories they go through even. But the first time I played this I just could not bring myself to care about any of them. It’s only now that I see what the kind of characters they’re setting up for that I care about them. It’s fun to see them talk about things that get echoed later, if not doing some actual foreshadowing.

Speaking of foreshadowing. “... Rush blindly forward without concern for your health, and you will one day pay the price.” Haurchefant said this. I’m going to reach through my screen and throttle him. I’ve made sure to give him a headpat upon every parting. Minfilia’s also said some stuff that made me squint my eyes, but they were more along the lines of ideas that would be echoed later, like everyone being of a single race and nation being Not Good Actually, but how they could transcend those things to come together for a common cause anyhow. I think this was more in reference to what the Garleans intend to do with Eorzea, but... it’s also of course very much in line with the Ascians. More so, I think.

I’m also still not so clear on the game’s lore concerning the Ascians. I could have sworn the Crystals of Darkness were supposed to be what allowed Ascian souls to return to the in-between dimension, but in ARR they’re described as being what allows an Ascian to posses people. Also I thought they were only used by lesser Ascians? Was it the other way around?? I mean. Breaking Lahabrea’s crystal would have the same effect of him being vanquished and removed from Thancred in either case. but I’m still confused. Guess I’ll just have to wait until it’s brought up again which... I think is in ShB. the next big explanation anyways. :l

27 minutes in... what else is there to say? I guess it’s been funny playing at a sprout level again. There’ve been a few people I’ve seen around that I recognize. The amount of ridiculously edgy names is funny. This character is on Adamantoise, and the difference from Faerie is fairly pronounced. Less scantily clad bara men running around. Nobody like Meat Sweats the cat man. I’ve noticed more shitty looking elf men but that might just be me and my growing hatred for them, or... no, actually it’s because I started in Gridania this time. Yeah, it was all the weird elf racism that was going on. Why’s every bit of media gotta make the elves racist?

Thank god it finally popped. Was in the middle of writing a incessant about how long it’s been, too. 31 minutes!

Man it’s weird how much of a focus ARR puts on Cid like 2/3 of the way through. It’s like they forgot they were supposed to have a plot or something. And then Cid is just sort of Around afterwards.

Actually scratch that thought. This Prae run is hilarious. There’s s chicken person who keeps making terrible jokes and a lesbian couple who got left behind and one of which subsequently became very lost. I think it was the cowboy roe woman. This is infinitely more entertaining that CidNero drama. They aren’t even new I don’t think either had sprouts and the roe’s armor is the peace lover’s which is very new and from the Firmament I think? Man I was writing about their antics but it was just too much.

It’s over now, at least. Well, there’s a cutscene going on but whoooo caaaaareeesssss. Well. i do since I haven’t skipped it yet. But still. Can’t believe Gaius didn’t die here. Completely unfair. My guy got blown up.

Aaanyways that’s enough for now. Time for post-ARR stuff. Eugh.