#i'm really excited for dawntrail though

[warlordfelwinter]

actually getting emotional at the credits. endwalker is the expansion i've been here for, i can't really believe it's officially over...

[ragnarokalypse]

I am usually a lurker. I don't really post anything...ever, anymore, but I am so incredibly disappointed by this expansion that I felt the need to chime in my sentiments, just to get it off my chest.

I am one of the few people that loved ARR, before the "streamlining." I was hooked in the first 10 levels and the game had me in a stranglehold all the way through Endwalker. Everything after 6.0 was...eh...but I love the game so I stuck with it. I also loved Stormblood, and I've walked away from Dawntrail loving it even more, because hoo boy, does Wuk Lamat give me a new appreciation for Lyse.

I don't have a problem with low stakes. I don't have a problem with fetch questing, building my reputation, and just generally doing menial tasks even when people should be acting with a little more urgency. My beef with this expansion isn't that it's "new", "low-key", "a reset", or anything like that. My beef is Wuk Lamat.

This entire expansion is basically the Wuk Lamat show. The WoL does not really forge any new relationships, they don't really explore anything, they don't really do anything, and when they do, it's hijacked by Wuk Lamat. I swear I think my character was introduced by name to a citizen maybe...once. Instead, we have to sit there watching Wuk Lamat do everything that I want to do in a story that is supposed to be about the character I've spent years investing time and emotional effort into. I want my character to be the one making friends, exploring new cultures, and building a positive reputation with the people. When the first half ended and we FINALLY got to go do something without her, I was excited. I was willing to forgive the first half because it felt like the REAL journey was just getting started.

But nope, back to Wuk Lamat. Back to her being the main character and my character, the character I actually love and have painstakingly developed over years, being sidelined. In the final battle, I was again excited because FINALLY, a good old fashioned WoL vs The Enemy showdown. But what's this? Oh, Wuk Lamat again. In the epilogue, everyone celebrated for three days and three nights to "hail the Dawnservant's victory." Like, what? She shows up in that last 20% and gets the credit? Excuse me? I don't dislike Wuk Lamat even if I do deeply dislike her type of character, but I do resent the massive amounts of space she takes up in what is supposed to be my character's story.

Maybe I'm selfish, maybe it's just a me problem, but I play MMOs to tell stories about characters in fun worlds that I get to craft to my liking. If I wanted to play a game of pre-existing characters and watch/experience their journey, I'd go boot up literally any other Final Fantasy game. I have seen people liken this expansion to World of Warcraft, and I agree, to an extent. However, even though WoW doesn't have your character be center stage, I have always felt like the world was expansive enough for you to tell your own independent stories in the background. I have a whole host of characters in the WoWverse that I've developed over the years, and I never felt like I was held back from being creative because of the overarching narrative choices made by the game because, ultimately, my character was not a central figure and I could do what I wanted.

Here, I'm trapped. I can't say my character is off doing something else because she's literally tied to Wuk Lamat through the entire expansion and the shard key will probably be important later. I went through 3 days of cutscenes and walked away with pretty much nothing that I feel inspires me creatively or gives me any new material to build my character's story. Instead, I'm left feeling like I'm having to struggle to explain why she's being so passive and out-of-character. Is it trauma? Is she drunk? You got me. I'm still figuring it out, and figuring it out is a struggle that I have never experienced in this game. It isn't fun, which kills the creativity even more.

I might have been more forgiving of the story if it were reframed around the characters I actually care about and I got to experience the world instead of sitting back and watching Wuk Lamat experience it for me, but as it stands, I didn't really enjoy any of it save the American old west town where we got to hang out with Erenville, blissfully Wuk Lamat free. I swear they're the only people in the story that actually talked to us and learned our names. I think the best example of how little I enjoyed myself is in how many screenshots I took. I took almost 3,000 screenshots throughout my first Endwalker playthrough. Here, I took less than 100.

I will continue to stick with XIV for a while to see where it goes from here, but if this is the new story direction and philosophy - tell a story through other characters first - then I may just have to sadly resign myself to the fact that my character's story ended with 6.0, and go off to greener pastures where I can craft characters and build stories in ways that are more to my liking.

Overall, 1/10. I can't even rank it amongst other expansions because even the lowest ranked expansion for me is one that I love. Dawntrail is in a league of dislike and resentment all its own.

[ishgard]

Gave Vena (thanahru kid) some little non-mod-dependent tweaks and I love her sm. Playing with the idea of expanding the time between EW and DT to at leeeeast about two years so-

Born some time post-EW

She has a slight over-abundance of light aether owing to moms [gestures to all of Shadowbringers] but it's been carefully managed through the help of [gestures to all of Ahru's friends and acquaintances and all else].

Natural proclivity for white magic, little surprise.

Has a greater aetheric density than most.

She likes to dabble in everything though, very influenced by her super cool mama. Studying other forms of magic helps balance and manage her aether.

Has little white freckles all over her body that glow a bit when she uses magic, and when she's really dialing it up her eyes glow too 😌

She was helping mama make dads magically enchanted bullets as a wee kiddo 😅

(May or may not be able to traverse the rift safely. But timeline wise who knows if we won't find a way to do that soon anyway.)

Not super spoilery but some Dawntrail-related bits:

So when Wuk Lamat comes looking for her champion Ahru delegates the role (maybe to Leto, haven't decided yet) but still tags along to help/offer assistance when needed the most - but is mostly just chilling and enjoying the sights with a toddler strapped to her back giggling all the way.

Very happy baby! Curious and excited about all the new things, very little danger sense lmao. (Hard, I guess, when your mom IS the danger.)

Gets passed around a few times between Thancred and Ahru

LOVES Wuk Lamat!! LOVES Gulool Ja Ja!! LOVES Sphene!! LOVES Bakool Ja Ja (hilarious) LOVES Erenville!! anyway the point is she loves everyone.

Erenville in particular is uncle though please imagine Ahru handing her over to him while sneaking around in Shaaloani and him just standing there, deadpan, with this tiny child chewing and drooling on one of his ears.

Zoraal Ja's vibes on the other hand made her cry once and it's On Sight for Ahru ever since.

Got to stay with Shale and Gulool Ja during Everkeep.

Got to stay with dad when mom went into Living Memory.

I'm gonna be thinking about these things for a while... 😂 Since she was born in 6.X she probably 'met' Zero too. Alas I think Ahru did not take the baby to the void lmao. Which is a fun fix in my head for Thancred's awful absence.

And then while I don't particularly plan on it being canon by any stretch of the means, while I'm playing around on her my mind inevitably leans towards 'haha of course she was messing around with mom's Azem tools and somehow got bapped into another timeline where she has to become the Warrior of Light'. 🤷‍♀️

[wannabeelf]

The only interesting new character in Dawntrail and they didn't let me spend any real time with him.

I finished the Dawntrail MSQ last night and feel compelled to write up my thoughts. Even though the spoiler embargo has been lifted, I'm still putting it under a cut because I'm not an asshole.

The TLDR is I hated it from beginning to end and if whatever they're going to set up for the next expansion over the patch content doesn't seem at least as good my previous least liked expansion I'm quitting the game entirely.

I'm going to start all the way back in 6.55.

They introduce this new character who is naive and impulsive. They tell me I'm going to have to help her earn the right to rule a country. I'm like, "Okay, we're doing Lyse's arc again, but but this time we're doing it with a stranger instead of a friend."

In a cut scene someone (I forget who and I'm not going to check right now), asks why we should support Wuk Lamat in the rite of succession and the answer she gives is that there is a candidate who must not be allowed to win and that's just automatically accepted as a good enough reason. But it's not a good enough reason! All I've been given is a reason to oppose the person she mentioned. I have no reason or desire to help this woman in particular.

Lyse may have been dumb compared to the rest of the Scions, but she was still a smart woman with excellent leadership potential that she just needed a little direction to realize. And she was a friend. Of course I would want to help her.

Wut Lamat at this point is a useless idiot without a lick of leadership potential. She loves her people, sure, but that's not enough to make a good ruler. Add on top of that that she's a complete stranger... I just don't understand why it has to be her bid that I sign on to support and not someone else's. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This being a linear game, I'm of course not permitted to refuse the contract that I would 100% have chosen to refuse if I were allowed to play my character the way she exists in my head. So I'm already irritated before the credits roll. But then they do roll and the post credits scene sets up the "friendly rivalry" arc. I find that trope boring and annoying at the best of times, but the fact that they specifically cast Thancred, the literal reason I play the game, in that role made it absolutely infuriating. I nearly quit right then and there.

As the months went by, I was able to calm myself down and console myself with the assumption that I would at least get to spend more time with Kryle and get to know her better over the course of Dawntrail. She's not my favorite character, but that's mostly because we haven't really spent much time with her beyond tactical discussions. And she's still more interesting than Wuk Lamat so I was looking forward to getting to know her better.

What little thought I gave to the "tournament" (another trope I'm not fond of) and "friendly rivaly" arcs led me to conclude that the "tournament" would end with two victors, meaning the "friendly rivalry" would end with a team up.

Then Dawntrail actually dropped and... well... I spent the first few quests yelling at my screen every time they made me act happy and/or excited about things that I was actually upset and/or disinterested during a cut scene. I told Estinien to shut the fuck up when he said the line I knew was going to force me into another one of those annoying duels I hate. (I did enjoy finally being given the option to say "I don't want to fight you," when that duel finally came up. Even though it was interpreted as a "I don't think you'll be a challenge" instead of the "I don't enjoy these things" that I meant.)

Then we finally got into the meat of the game and are introduced to the contenders. The moment they introduced Koana I was like, "Oh look. He actually has a plan that goes beyond 'win the throne.' He's a bit closed off, which is unfortunate, but I do see a hint of leadership potential under there. I want to switch sides." Of course, I wasn't allowed to do that even though the only thing it would have changed about the story is my enjoyment of it. I'm getting ahead of myself again.

On with the rite of succession and I quickly realize the only character I'm going to be allowed to spend any time with is my annoying dumb ass of a client. Farewell to my hopes of getting to know Kryle better.

When the rivalry really kicked off in that one cut scene and then the first dungeon, I was so enraged I couldn't see to do the mechanics of the dungeon properly. Then I struggled to sleep that night. Then I woke up still angry. I tried to continue with the MSQ that day, But every time Thancred showed up I got angry again. I was slightly more calm, but still angry the day after that, so I decided to ignore MSQ for a few days until I fully calmed down. It took 3 days of not touching the story before I was able to continue. Then the rivalry just... stopped being a thing. It was never addressed and never resolved. Which only makes it worse.

Around that point, I started to realize that during the little bit of screen time that was given over to anyone other than Wuk Lamat, all of the Scions felt out of character. Thancred got the worst of it, but even my beloathed G'raha Tia felt off when he eventually showed up. It gave the impression that the writer of Dawntrail assumed that every one was going to fall so in love with their brand new cat girl that they'd suddenly stop caring about all of the characters that they've spent the previous 5 games getting to know and love, so why not just treat them as set dressing.

Anyway. I go through the "tournament arc" expecting my annoying client to grow into the role she's obviously going to win because she hired me. But she doesn't. She has no character growth whatsoever and is the exact same person at then end of the arc as she was when we first met. The only smart decision she ever made was asking Koana to rule with her. Koana, on the other hand, did learn to open up and is on the path to becoming a good leader. But he did it off screen and it's just too bad if you wanted to witness that journey yourself.

Anyway, the rite of succession ended exactly the way I thought it was going to and it felt like nothing I did mattered. So off I go with Erenville on what I call "the intermission." I did actually enjoy this part. I liked Erenville when he was introduced in Endwalker and thought he was underused in that expansion, so it was nice spending a little bit of time with him.

Then the invasion happened and I was right back to being bored and annoyed. I'm forced to spend more time with my annoying client who does not understand that she paid for my sword, not my friendship, and my sword is all she got. Only this time I have to do it while surrounded by an aesthetic I cannot stand.

It was around this time I realized I'd gone from savior of the universe, to side character in the span of one expansion. It all kind of just washed over me from this point on. It was so boring and I was surrounded by things and characters that I hate, so I just stopped giving it my full attention. Until...

I got to the level 100 quests when I finally... Finally! got to learn a little bit about my friend Kryle and her history. Then it was over a quest and a half later.

Final dungeon. Final trial. Oh look! I'm finally rid of my annoying client. I matter again! Halfway through the trial my annoying client returns. Fuck you Square. The end.

In the entire expansion, the only time anything interesting happened, it happened in a "Meanwhile..." cut scene. I would briefly get excited to explore that interesting thing, and then the plot turned its back on it and ignored it for a minimum of 4 quests. I knew going in that I wasn't going to like this expansion very much, so I set my bar on the ground and they still failed to clear it. They tunneled 10 feet under it instead.

[terramythos]

honestly that was a ride. i'll probably need some time to reflect on it but i went in with pretty low expectations knowing it was basically supposed to be ARR for the second story arc and after the Shadowbringers/Endwalker double whammy, which is pretty fucking hard to top. DT definitely exceeded said expectations by a lot

the first half is definitely quite slow, and while i disagree with a lot of the criticism surrounding it (i think it's good to NOT be the savior of everything center of attention for once, and a lower stakes adventure is totally fine), i think the devs feel beholden to a certain content pattern/structure which holds back certain parts of the story. i was honestly bored for the first level or so, though it gets much better, it's not a great first impression. some of the writing choices in the first half are also pretty weak and arbitrary, which isn't the end of the world but is a little disappointing. for example the rules of the competition seemed to only exist when convenient to the story, the 93 trial felt forced, etc. but i liked the new characters and am interested to see where they go. in particular i really enjoyed seeing wuk lamat grow from being naive and childish to a capable and rational leader. bakool ja ja having surprise plot twist depth was cool. and I love the introduction of "no one truly dies as long as they are remembered" in the first half and how it transitions into something completely twisted in the second half.

the second half is DEFINITELY where the pace and general worldbuilding & writing ramps up, like ARR it establishes a lot of potential story threads going forward. i didn't expect literally Any Of That and never knew what was going to happen next. it ties into themes established in the previous storyline, especially re: letting go of the past and moving on to the future. considering the troubled history of FFXIV 1.0 and its transition into ARR i think we will always see some of this. i fully expected them to explore more of the reflections in the new storyline and we honestly jump right into that. with the sun rising over the shut down Living Memory i can also see us exploring The Unlost World further in the future.

in terms of the game part, DT features some of the most original fight mechanics i've seen in a while. i know some of that is it being new content, but i continue to be impressed with how creative the designers get with a relatively limited engine and battle system. visually the fights were also quite a spectacle. i'm excited to see the raid and alliance raid series (and trial series, assuming those return this expansion).

i guess my question now is.. now what? the ending leaves everything quite open. i am not sure what the patches will focus on in terms of story, let alone the next expansion. i guess we will have to see but based on the second half of dawntrail's story i am optimistic about it.

[miqolena]

My first-final thoughts on Dawntrail

My opinions and spoilers for the entirety of 7.0 under the cut.

Overall I enjoyed this expansion immensely. There was no point at which I thought to myself, "I can't wait for this part to be over," or "This is really dull," or "I want to move on to the next thing right now." There was no character I did not enjoy and feel at least something small for. Characters I kind of didn't like initially (Bakool Ja Ja mostly) ended up being some of the characters that I loved most. Wuk Lamat was a joy in her development. I wasn't annoyed by her initial faults and I liked that she retained some of them even at the end, after she had grown so immensely. Zoraal Ja's dimensions were revealed a little late into the game, but I had already sort of gotten a notion of them by the time that happened, so I didn't mind, and I find the idea of struggling with the legacy someone leaves you with the best of intentions to be really compelling. I adored Gulool Ja Ja to pieces. And Wuk Eva. And literally everyone else. I'm serious, there's no one I didn't like.

The area that affected me most was Living Memory, and if that was like kicking me in the shin, then Heritage Found was the winding back of the leg. I have dealt with my own losses in life and the whole thing with reusing souls and resurrecting people and preserving them based on their memories was grotesque to me. My loved ones are gone, and we had wonderful relationships and I loved them dearly, but I would never want to speak to them again. Because they are dead and should stay that way. But the scene with Wuk Lamat speaking her last words to Namikka was terribly upsetting because I couldn't help imagining the things I would say to my loved ones if I could see them again. It struck home with painful precision and there were tears.

The themes of love, legacy, war, redemption, death, and loss were poignant to me, and I think they were handled really well.

As for the encounter design, the dungeons were fairly difficult but I never died in a Trust run, so they must not have been too hard. Same with the trials. I can see myself doing these things over and over again without getting too tired of it for the next two or so years. The single player duties were great except for the one QTE in the duel with Gulool Ja Ja, which stressed my hands to the point of forcing me to take a break for a few hours.

For gathering, I appreciate the new action Revisit that the game added to the two gatherers, it's always exciting when it procs. Fisher seems to be sitting pretty too. I haven't done all of them yet but so far the Wachumeqimeqi quests have been great, and I haven't done any of the role quests yet, so no opinions there. For crafting, I haven't really delved into the potential of the new actions, but I know they're probably going to shake up the game a little.

Music was spot on as usual. The game's graphical update has done wonders for the visuals as well. I'm lucky in that I'm completely enamored with Lena's updated appearance; a lot of people aren't so happy. I hope that their concerns can be addressed over time.

This might be new expansion smell filling my head, but I think Dawntrail might be my favorite. I can't wait to see where they're going with this, the aftermath to the threads they made in the MSQ. I want more of these characters and places and I know I'm going to get it, and that's the most comforting feeling.

As for fic, though… I think it's going to be hard to put Gaius in there with Lena. The entire first half the WoL is providing a role of mentorship for Wuk Lamat and I'm going to have to think really hard about how I write the MSQ so that Gaius is there and not just nodding his head and going 🧍‍♂️. There are a few moments when I was playing where I thought to myself "Gaius could respond to this with something relevant to his character," like for example when Zoraal Ja remarks that the Empire was full of idiots, but those were just a few moments. It'll be hard to fit him in with the rest of it and depict the MSQ in a way that's both not boring/retreading what viewers have already seen to much while still getting the information of the plot AND my changes across. We'll see how it goes. I'm not super hankering to start, so we'll see when I get to that.

That's all. See you ingame!

[anneapocalypse]

14 and 20 for that ship meme!

14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?

It completely depends on the ship. I don't think every character would or should get married no matter how in love they are, or maybe they would get married under certain circumstances but not others. And for others, maybe marriage is extremely important!

(Spoilers for Red vs. Blue, Dragon Age Origins, and FFXIV: Heavensward ahead.)

I don't see Agent Carolina from Red vs. Blue, for example, as the marrying kind, and in my Mainelinaverse marriage is never going to be a thing. However I actually make an exception for Kimbalina, not just because I think it's something Kimball would want but because the institution of marriage even being a thing again is a sign of Chorus rebuilding and being A Society again. I still think it would take Carolina a good few years on Chorus to get comfy with the idea. But I do like the idea that she and Kimball eventually get married.

My Dragon Age OC Ilana Tabris never wants to get married and never does. She and Zevran spend the rest of their days happily and polyamorously in love and never marry. My other Tabris, Talith, is excited to get married and devastated at what happens on her first wedding day, and twelve years later marries Orlesian refugee Briala to offer her political protection and only after the wedding bells do they fall in love!

And as for Ariane in FFXIV... I do think marriage is something she's open to, though not something she'd rush into, and I think it is in her future with Urianger post-Dawntrail. (Fun/sad fact: Count Edmont tells her after Haurchefant's death that he was planning on proposing to her, which leaves her with even more heartbreak and messy feelings about what could have been--she totally would have said yes, but also never would have really fit in in Ishgard.) I think with Urianger the way it eventually comes up is probably that Ariane asks him if he'd ever want a kid (the answer's yes), and that discussion segues into "Do we want to get married?"

20. Who’s the ship’s biggest in-universe supporter?

Hah, that's a good question! Thancred and even Y'shtola both give them a nudge a certain point, but it's more in a "can you two get your shit together" kind of way. Alphinaud is weird about it at first because he's kind of had a crush on Ariane in that way teenagers do even though he knew it was absolutely never happening because he's too young for her. Alisaie is just kind of "Good for them" about it.

I'd actually have to say the biggest supporter is Ryne! (And I'm going to be so self-indulgent here and share a few snippets from a WIP because I feel like it.) Urianger has become like family to her, and he talked about Ariane so much during those three years, Ryne almost felt like she knew her too.

Minfilia had never met Ariane, but she had been hearing of her, ever since Thancred came and took her from Eulmore. It was Thancred who first told her of Ariane, the Warrior of Light. Not the ones who had brought on the Flood, but a Warrior of Light of a distant star, both like this world and different. He told her of other companions too, a group called the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, and of the one who once led them: Minfilia. The first Minfilia. His Minfilia, he called her. Then she met Urianger, who lived with the pixies. He spoke often of Ariane, calling her a "dear friend." One day, he said, she too would be brought to the First, and when she did, things would get better. Ariane was kind, Urianger said, and caring, and clever, and a skilled healer in multiple disciplines; in fact it was in part she who had inspired him to take up astrology, even in a world with no night. "Ariane sounds wonderful," she said to Thancred once, and Thancred let out a sort of laugh. "She's… quite lovely," he said, sounding as though there was something he wasn't saying. Minfilia had come to know the sound of that. "Though I dare say she sounds especially lovely when Urianger speaks of her." "What do you mean?" Minfilia asked, instantly curious. "Oh, nothing," Thancred said with a short laugh. "He's very fond of her, is all."

Ryne is very quick to notice that Urianger's fondness for Ariane is not one-sided, and she bonds with Ariane quickly too when she arrives, both because she's heard so much about her and because Ariane reaches out and treats her kindly and is clearly trying to get to know her as a person, not just as the Oracle of Light.

So when she realizes they aren't spending time together anymore after the First is saved... it really shakes her. It's like realizing something's wrong between two family members that you love dearly.

He was with Ryne at her astronomy lessons when the girl looked up suddenly, and said, “I haven’t seen you with Ariane very much lately.” “Ah…” he said, considering how to reply. 'Twould be fruitless to deny it; Ryne was an observant child. “’Tis true, we have seen little of one another of late.” He had meant to keep his voice light, but Ryne looked at him with an expression of some alarm. “You haven’t quarreled, have you?” “Nay,” he was quick to assure her, then added, “…not precisely. If we have been distant, the fault is mine.” “But you’ll be all right, won’t you?” Ryne pressed. “You’ll work it out? The two of you care so much for each other.” Urianger was at a loss as to how to reply. He longed to assuage the girl’s worries, and yet he could little assure of her of that of which he was himself uncertain. He reminded himself that Ryne could handle the truth—nay, deserved it. (As had Ariane. Had he only found a way to share it with her, without risking everything.) “Ariane hath asked time to herself,” he said at last. “There are times when another may ask the gift of our absence, and if we care for them, we must grant it. She shall return when she is ready… and until then, I shall respect her wishes.” Ryne nodded. “I see…” and Urianger could tell that it still troubled her. Nevertheless, she said no more.

[thecrystarium]

　　 · 　 * · ✦ about the blogger ✫ ✵ ·　　✵ 　　 ˚

b | 30+ | she/her | queer i've been playing ffxiv since 2/20/22! i played wow for 10+ years and then left for a long while, was missing mmos, so i decided to give ffxiv a chance after seeing someone play a bit of it. i fell in love immediately, absolutely loved the gameplay and story, and ended up finishing endwalker on 9/19/2022! i'm a decent gifmaker, a mediocre writer, and a bad gposer, but i'm having fun doing all of them! all likes and follows come from @pdwoozi~ :) update: very close to finishing dawntrail! i've just got the lvl 100 dungeon and the last trial left to do, and i'll get around to it soon! i'm so enraptured in crafting/gathering right now, i don't know what to do with myself. i've got culinarian and fishing @ 100 and i'm working hard on everything else!

　　 · 　 * · ✦ warrior of light ✫ ✵ ·　　✵ 　　 ˚

twinkle littlestar | 29 years old | pictomancer (main) twinkle littlestar (a chosen name rather than her given) is of the dunesfolk lalafell and is small in stature compared to others of her age. her nameday falls on the 29th sun of the first umbral moon and she very much loves to celebrate it with all of the people she's come to call friends. twinkle chose ul'dah her home, though she hails from somewhere else entirely. she loves the twists and turns of the city streets and the shadows the lamps cast when they flicker on at night. oftentimes, you'll find her just outside the city walls, looking straight up at the stars and marveling over the heavens. she doesn't remember much of her parents, who were taken away from her all too soon, but she does remember her mother singing her a little song every night as she snuggled up under her covers to fall asleep.

to say that twinkle loves the nighttime and stars (those from the source and those from other shards alike) is an understatement. if you ask her, the night sky is ever-changing, the heavens ever-moving. there's something exciting to see in it every time she glances back after having just looked away. (just ask her about the moment she saw the night sky return on the first!) the mere sight of something space-y sends her into an excited tizzy the likes of which you've never seen before. and for gods sakes, don't get her on the topic of constellations and their meanings because you'll never hear the end of it. see, here's where most people would figure she would have taken up with the astrology guild, but the people that know twinkle best know that her true talent lies in the arts. hand her a piece of paper and you won't get it back without doodles all over it. when she can't find the words to describe what she wants, she'll draw you a picture of it.

in twinkle's book, the less she has to speak, the better. she can go days, weeks without talking sometimes, and it brings her peace. so, when she has something to say, listen. it's usually important. her friends, at first, attempted to get her to speak more, but after an explanation to alisaie that she really didn't care much for idle chatter or feel a need to insert herself into conversations, everyone else got the memo. she's not trying to be rude or shut herself out: she does love to listen! to music, to the sound of her friend's voices, to the silence that surrounds her whenever she escapes to look at the night sky.

[illegiblewords]

Heavy stuff, venting.

I'm having a really, really awful time right now and it just sucks a lot. Things have been tough offline on a lot of levels lately. I don't share much of my creative stuff with people IRL, but it's one of the things that can give me a lot of joy through the day even when things are hard. Creative stuff can mean stories, or designs, or analysis. Even just poking around seeing what other people have done will cheer me up. I've been taking a break from FFXIV for a bit. I didn't play the most recent patch or holiday stuff. Some of the pacing and directions feel like missed opportunities. I might try again in Dawntrail but at this moment I'm taking a break to do BG3 for a bit. I've been interested in DnD for years, and I actually have a million ideas and things I find exciting tied to the Forgotten Realms. Haven't gotten to do more than the very beginning of a campaign because schedule hell but I'd really love to. BG3 has been a chance for me to actually interact with the world on my own terms a bit and it's been a big source of joy for me lately. And I love that Larian put as much thought and layering for the characters psychologically, overall. I love that they generally haven't shied away from stuff either. If I try to look at tags for say, Gale though? Mostly instead of other people making things, I've been getting people who are absolutely furious about how devs talked in a recent interview. I've dealt with characters I love to bits being treated in horrifying ways before. People who were with me when I did Spidey stuff will probably remember some of it. Shit was genuinely incredibly upsetting. I don't think the things people are mad at Larian about are intentional by Larian in the way they're being interpreted. I think this could probably be resolved just by explaining concerns assuming it was unintentional, without rage or accusation. They seem to really care about their fans and given the story told I think they care about their own characters too. Business bits aside. I haven't talked about any of this on tumblr or twitter because like... right now people seem to be a kind of angry where if you aren't angry the way they are, then fuck you you piece of shit basically. But if I'm just trying to make things, or find other people making things, or do analysis? I've just been wading through the anger from other people. It's more stress when I just don't need it. I've tried to find BG3 or DnD discords. I haven't found one for BG3. The DnD ones, I think there's a combination of them being kind of dead and... not really a place for what I do or how I talk. I have two homebrew monsters and a homebrew item I'd love to keep refining but I have no idea how stats work, and I can only really go so far on my own not having done a campaign in any way. Someone suggested I make my own discord community, and I could try, but idk if anyone else would be interested and being in-charge makes me anxious. Same time I'd be really nervous about whether discords run by other people are chill. I desperately, desperately want to avoid drama.

And stupidly I went to the official forums for lack of knowing where else to go. I was surprised that people were nice initially but one person came in and has been making weird personal attacks, backhanded compliments, talking like they're the authority on all things (lore, morality, storytelling as a whole). If you have a different opinion you are wrong and a bad person and stupid too. I genuinely think this person might be a narcissist and they are setting off every possible warning bell with me. Like I'm actually freaked out by how out of touch with reality they are. This person is making shit up that was never discussed, gaslighting like crazy, twisting words, and going into rages claiming I went nuclear when my whole point was 'why the fuck are you being mean to me and trying to boss me around???' I was very much not happy with the person but I was fucking careful not to insult them. And now I think this person doesn't want to leave me the hell alone. And like, I straight up said I don't want to talk to them further. When the user had a MASSIVE GODDAMN TANTRUM full of personal insults and accusations, I didn't reply. I thanked one other person in the forum for mentioning they read the message as hostile too, mentioned my 'leave me alone' message wasn't taken in its intended spirit, and touched briefly on why the accusations hit a particular sore spot. Then I apologized for derailing and switched to discuss character interpretations again.

Lunatic is like 'oh these replies to my message are so interesting, I'm going to answer you all once the website stops glitching'. And I swear to fuck I can hear the strings from Psycho going off.

I don't really trust that forum moderators will intervene. It's been a whole day since my first attempt to report, when the initial message happened. The second message was much worse. I generally don't trust people to take it seriously if harassment like that is happening. My assumption is if it's criminal I need to go to the police but otherwise like... no one is watching out for shit. And there is no block system on those forums.

I AM JUST TRYING TO MAKE CRAP MAN. I CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS. I CARE ABOUT AND INTERPRET CHARACTERS IN A WAY NOT EVERYONE ELSE DOES. I DON'T NEED PEOPLE TO AGREE BUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE LET ME MAKE AND TALK ABOUT SHIT IN PEACE. If I touch on a heavy topic, it's because I think it's warranted or adds a layer to the narrative that explains things or otherwise makes sense. I'm going to navigate heavy topics with care and empathy because I am very aware people get seriously hurt by that shit, a LOT of creators are actively cruel to victims, and! I love the characters! People are allowed to tell stories that cover the darker parts of human experience, not just the ones a single specific person approves of! And if you don't fucking like how someone else interprets or makes shit, DON'T READ IT AND MAKE YOUR OWN CRAP.

This was probably horrible interneting in the sense that I shouldn't have replied at all, but what the everloving fuck. How do you go up to random strangers and lead with condescension like that? How do you go through life just assuming everyone different from you has something wrong with them? EDIT: Person has escalated. Not sure what to do. Have reported a lot but no action yet. FURTHER EDIT: Mod showed up and said 'people are allowed to disagree, be nice, there's a hidden ignore button on a separate webpage'. The personal attacks are allowed to stand and TOS seem to be meaningless. Another user pointed out that the lunatic had been recognized as aggressive by two people and that my analysis wasn't unreasonable or uncommon even if they didn't subscribe themselves. Person private messaged with me and was pretty reassuring. I'm just on the page of 'fuck those forums I am never coming back' at this point, with the added understanding that if I tried to talk again at all the lunatic would 5000% continue trying to harass me. I just hope they get distracted and move on/forget basically. Fuck that shit.

[rivenroad]

Post-6.5 thoughts

on MSQ/Myths/Endwalker in general.

While there have been things I liked in this patch and the recent MSQ arc in general, it's a shame that my ultimate feeling upon the end of it is "glad that's over so we can move on"... I like Zero a lot and the stuff with Ryne in this patch but that's about all really. I don't hate it or think it's terrible but I just didn't really care much for any of it either.

Not sure if I like the conclusion of this part of Zero's arc, perhaps because of my lack of interest in the overall story I didn't feel much about it. I loved her and the way things developed with her in previous patches but here I was kinda just like... "oh, okay". It just didn't really feel very impactful for something that should really have been a big deal. I don't think this will be the last we see of her, but even so...

I think the way I would have liked for this to be handled is for it to be a prologue to an expansion that was very similar to Shadowbringers in concept, where we visit the Thirteenth in a more major way, restoring various areas of it. Given the status of the place, that is, much further gone than the First was, it might be difficult to pull this off with how the game presently works... I think to do it effectively they'd need something along the lines of how they've already handled changing environments based on quest progression, but it would need to be much more drastic than just changing weather effects and the occasional structure. I have hopes that it's possible in future for them to do something like that, especially with the upcoming graphics update, but now is probably not the time.

So I guess what I saying is that I feel as though this arc would be a nice build-up to a Void-themed expansion but it's not. It's a somewhat uninteresting story arc to me which ends in a predictable and not particularly exciting way and just has a vague promise of future content... It could come around to being amazing eventually, like how I simply didn't care about the Warriors of Darkness arc before Shadowbringers, thought it was awkwardly placed and uninteresting, and look how that turned out. lol.

I don't want to place too much expectation on it, though... It's hard not to with something I'm so invested in, but Endwalker in general has disappointed me a lot by not doing things how I would have liked them. I didn't like how most of the 6.0 MSQ was handled, I think it was a poor decision to cram it into a single expansion instead of allowing it the time and space that was originally planned for it. I did enjoy Elpis and Pandaemonium as they are, but if it were my choice, I would have preferred that the details of Ancients were still largely left a mystery.

I suppose the Void thing feels a bit like the Ancient situation right now. They elaborated on a lot of mysteries of the place, but currently, in a rather unsatisfying way that doesn't go far enough and sort of leaves me feeling like I wish they hadn't done it and just waited until they could execute it better with more time and resources.

This also applies to Myths of the Realm, really... I don't hate it, I like Deryk, I like the designs of the Twelve and enjoyed seeing and interacting with them to a degree... but ultimately it felt like a miss for me and I sort of wish they hadn't done it. The conclusion was underwhelming, I'm still not totally sure how I feel about the decisions made there but right now I can't say I'm a fan. I need more time to consider my feelings there, but, well... it's another part of Endwalker that just doesn't quite hit the mark for me, and it's a shame to look back on this expansion and feel so much dissatisfaction.

However, the positive side of this is that I'm very much intrigued to see where things go from here. A totally new setting and story for Dawntrail has a lot of potential, and I'll try not to get too caught up in my own hopes and expectations... but even when I do, there's a good side to that as well - inspiration. Everything that I wish for in FFXIV (or any other story) that doesn't happen is something I can make happen myself, in my own stories and creative endeavours.

[yamisnuffles]

dawntrail meme! 1, 12, and 18! xoxo

Gonna put this under a cut just because spoilers.

1. Why did they agree to accompany Wuk Lamat to Tural?

Aubrey instantly liked Wuk Lamat and, beyond that, she trusted Erenville's endorsement. She wasn't going to make any rush decisions as far as the future of an entire nation went but she trusted she would have time to properly feel things out along the way. More than anything, though, she longed for the next horizon and new adventure. She'd left home in the first place to see the world and there was still so much world left to see. She was practically vibrating with excitement at the opportunity.

12. What was their opinion of the culture of recycling souls and the use of regulators? Did this change as the story progressed?

Aubrey was horrified by this idea and it very emphatically did not change. With so many of her loved ones having passed to the Aetherial Sea, she couldn't imagine those souls being denied their opportunity to rest and to return as new life. Instead, they were basically batteries.

But what bothered her the most about the whole thing, was the fact that the dead were forgotten. Yes they "lived on" in the cloud, but those still living in this world were robbed of those memories. Those very memories had shaped Aubrey into who she was today. She'd once been tasked to remember and the idea that she might be denied that, no matter how painful the remembering sometimes was, was awful to her. Family, friends, lovers... even if they passed, at least she could hold them in her heart. It seemed a cruelty beyond imagining for her that people should forget, even as it was framed as a kindness.

18. What important relationships changed or developed throughout Dawntrail?

There wasn't much change to existing relationships. She still loves Estinien as much as ever (maybe more, seeing him living it up as a truly kindred spirit). She was thrilled every time she ran into him and it was a reminder why she loved him so much. The Scions, also, remain her cherished family and home.

She did develop more of a relationship with Erenville. She'd liked him before. She's often the only Viera around in Eorzia, so she was immediately drawn to him. However, she hadn't had a chance to really get to know him. As she did, she felt increasingly protective of him. I'm not entirely sure where that relationship is going but he's definitely someone that Aubrey will want to hold close, if she can. She'd love to explore the wonders of the world with him.

She also made plenty of brand new bonds along the way. The most notable being Wuk Lamat, who she sees a bit as a little sister. By extension, Koana also feels a bit like a brother to her.

[singing-swan]

Aaaaand Dawntrail done!!

Overall I had a really good time with it! It isn't my favourite expansion but I went in with very little expectations beyond hoping for a lighter expac to have fun with, and that's what I got so I'm satisfied. I think they've also left a lot of interesting threads hanging that could be picked up later (like what's up with that key!!) so I'm excited to see what they do with them. It definitely felt like this expac was a new beginning setting the stage for more.

My favourite thing was definitely how strong the themes were and how perfectly they evolved with the flow of the story. From learning about cultures to learning about their people, to learning about people as individuals and that to know someone, you also have to accept to be known. And only through knowing and being known can you remember and be remembered in turn. How those we remember are an important part of ourselves and we are an important part of others, too.

I really enjoyed the new characters and new places too, the new zones were gorgeous! Though I have to say I enjoyed the first part a bit more as I liked the fun, low stakes adventures and I think that's the part that let the new characters shine best, Wuk Lamat in particular. It was really nice to see her grow through the rite, and I thought she was very loveable with a strong, if a bit cliché, character arc. They set the wol as her mentor, and I definitely felt proud seeing her use what she learned from her experiences during the second part. We basically helped train the new main character of Tural and that was just really fun hahaha

I do have two main gripes with the writing unfortunately, but I'll put them under a cut so people don't have to see negativity if they don't want to.

The main problem I had was the whole Heritage Found + Solution Nine section, or rather the Sphene parts of it. Those parts felt incredibly repetitive and slowed down the pacing enormously. I started feeling frustrated as it felt like I was seeing the same conversation over and over, when it served no other purpose than to tell us how much Sphene loves her subjects and how much they love her, again and again and again.... It was starting to feel tedious after a while. The pacing picked up again once you defeat Zoraal Ja and discover the Living Memory and she became more engaging once she was fully revealed as a villain, but that part definitely hurt how much I enjoyed her as an antagonist. I think she's full of interesting ideas but to me the execution relied a bit too much on telling rather than showing.

The second gripe is one I also had with 6.x, and it's the feeling that the writers weren't always sure what to do with the returning characters. It wasn't as bad as 6.x (especially as they were meant to take a backseat in this one) and we had some nice moments with them, but I definitely got the impression at times the writers are new to writing with such a big cast, with a tendency to overfocus on their own characters to make up for it, namely Zero in 6.x and Wuk Lamat in DT. And while they're both well written, I don't know if any character is well written enough to handle this amount of spotlight put on them if that makes sense? I have friends who thought she was too present and I understand where they're coming from. In the first part the focus on her was normal but in the second part I feel it'd have been nice to have the screentime shared a bit more, especially for Krile who didn't get enough of it imo. The last zone was a better on that front but it's a bit sad we had to wait until then.

Okay, complaining over now. Despite everything it didn't affect too much my enjoyment of the expac as a whole and I came out of it feeling mainly satisfied. Like I said, all I wanted from it was to have a fun time and I absolutely got that. I can't wait to see more of Tural and I'm excited to see where they take the story next, especially since it seems like shard travel will be a big focus and I'm very intrigued 👀

[farfromdaylight]

more dawntrail posting. i have just finished the level 93 dungeon.

this expansion is, as i said in the last post, very basic. and while i expect the fandom will complain about this, it's not a bad thing. we just had massive stakes in the last arc; we need a return to basics. this is not a complicated story at all, and that's fine.

however, i'm only a third of the way in! i fully expect things to ramp up over time, especially because it feels as though a lot of the rite of succession is already done with. where the story is going, i really don't know, and it's exciting.

i logged off just as valigarmanda woke up, so i fully expect to have to do the trial presently. some misc notes...

fucking called it that thancred and uri were working for koana, lol. i wouldn't be surprised if koana and wuk lamat jointly win this thing, but we'll see.

my urge for enemies to lovers wolkoana is rising — i mean, what?

i really could have done without the wuk lamat kidnapping section. everything else has been fine but that part really felt unnecessary. was nice to get to know koana as part of it but still, meh.

i don't really have more thoughts at this juncture... so much of the story has been so straightforward that there's not much to say yet. but as i said, that's okay. we'll get there.

[ladyswillmart]

Link's first horse! Dunno how much I'll be using horses right now but taming one was easier than I thought it would be. Though the first time he tried he did get kicked in the face 😨

Man these Yiga Clan folks sure have an insatiable zest for life and death and also possibly grilled salmon?

It's fine, bring it on, I usually need their weapons anyway 😌

I wasn't sure if I'd like this game but I'm enjoying it a lot. I didn't really like how weapons would break so easily but now I see it as just another mechanic you have to work with so it adds an interesting dynamic to the game--it's kinda like how i first felt about how dying in Elden Ring makes you lose all your runes. Also I am pleased to report the combat is a lot more forgiving than Elden Ring, or at least Link has yet to get ankle-bitten to death by giant Frenzied rats.

Maybe starting it like a month before Dawntrail launch wasn't the best idea, but what can ya do now?

Anyway I've got clothing dyes now and a huge photo album to fill with pictures of birds so yeah, I'm pretty excited to see where this goes.

[fair-fae]

so is there anything you're excited for in dawntrail?

I am excited for... everything!! But most of all, for Dawntrail in particular, I'm excited to see what the new story will be, not just for the expansion but for this new story arc in general! I'm also really excited to learn more about the Void/Thirteenth and I hope it's not just gonna be a speedbump on the way to a tangentially related story, but something that is actually explored and has some time dedicated to it. (Also excited for some more Zenos content, though that may just be in post-EW content and not Dawntrail, but. Stay mad about it, Zenos-dislikers.)

[anneapocalypse]

Writing Wrap-up and 2024 Goals

It's a weird year to be doing a wrap-up, because I did not post a whole lot this year and I'm not sure I even set any goals last January thanks to having covid and being sick and exhausted for weeks, which still kind of feels like it threw off my whole year even though that sounds dramatic. Whatever. I've moped enough about it being a bad year for writing; now, I want to look forward.

2023 Wrap-Up

In case you'd like to read the one fic I did post this year, it's "Before You Go", a Loghain/Maric fic for Dragon Age (3022 words, rated E), which I am still quite happy with! And though it's not writing, I also made a podfic of RosellaWrites' gorgeous fic "let them not make me a stone (and let them not spill me)" (and if you're not interested in podfic you should still go read Rosella's fic, seriously, it's great).

While November 2022 was the last time I made substantial progress on A Hero Sleeps in Gwaren (my Briala/F!Tabris longfic for Dragon Age), I did make a few attempts to chip away at the draft this year. I didn't keep any records of what progress I made, but lucky for me Scrivener has a writing history feature that can at least give me a ballpark, and... it says I added 17,326 words to the draft this year (all in the first half of the year), which, not gonna lie, seems unreal to me. The first half of this year is mud in my head, so the fact that I did in fact get some writing done is really encouraging.

Over the summer, FFXIV started to really consume me as I had finished ARR by that point and my investment in the story was growing, and I also started taking a more active leadership role in my tiny free company, and so for the back half of the year I've mostly been writing little snippets about my Warrior of Light Ariane and her adventures and relationships, some of which may become part of actual fics later. This totals out to about 19,500 words at the moment.

So I only posted about 3000 words, but in total I wrote almost 40K this year. Is that a fantastic year, no... but honestly, it's a lot better than what my brain has been telling me I've accomplished this year, which is nothing. :P So I'm glad that I sat down to actually find the numbers!

Onward and upward.

So what's next?

2024 Goals

Fandom:

Finish one longfic.

Write and post a one-shot.

Do one exchange.

Original:

Outline an original novel.

Write a poem.

Send out one piece.

Tentatively my immediate plans are to get started outlining and then writing my Ariane/Haurchefant fic. I'm on the fence about February. On the one hand, it would be great to come back to my Briala/F!Tabris longfic for Femslash February, but on the other hand there's a high probability I'm going to be playing Endwalker by that point and I have no hope of keeping my head in Dragon Age during that time, so it's probably best not to commit to it. Dragon Age fic might be best saved for after I've caught up on MSQ when there are (hopefully) a few months still left to wait for Dawntrail and I can take a little break to let it marinate while I work on something else. My enthusiasm for the Briala/Tabris fic has not waned despite the long hiatus, and just yesterday I was reading bits of the draft and getting excited again, so I do hope to finish that this year and get to share it with you.

The alternate candidate for February is either keep working on the Haurchefant fic or in the case of a miracle in which I actually finish it this month (hah!), move forward with the next one I have planned, an Urianger/Moenbryda. That's unlikely but we'll see. I know I still have things to learn about Urianger in Endwalker, which I'm very excited for.

As for what exchange(s) I might do this year, I'm not sure yet! I haven't seen any announcements yet that Chocolate Box is running this year. Black Emporium and FemslashEx are both strong candidates for me. We'll see where I am when those roll around, or maybe something else will catch my eye!

Edited to add: Oh, yeah, also at some point we're supposed to get that final season of Red vs. Blue. I have a few outstanding projects in RvB but the main one that really matters to me is Radio Silence, my Carolina lost years fic. I'd love to use the series' send-off as a kick in the pants to finally finish that one, whenever that happens. We'll see!

Finally, I am making a conscious effort to reclaim my writing time, which traditionally has been the morning between 9 and noon because that's when my mind is the sharpest, but over the past I basically let that slip entirely and be taken over by either housework or gaming, just writing on the fly when something came to me. I'm not morning gaming anymore unless it's for a good reason (timed event I need to catch, etc, which is rare, and finishing yesterday's roulettes is not a good enough reason because the queues are slower in the morning and it just ends up eating more time than it needs to, they happen every day, it's fine).

On to 2024. Looking forward to it.