#ive been thinking about heavensward for a

[abimee]

despite how much WOL art i make i still have the ''I NEED TO DRAW 14 ART'' crave in my gut like i need to draw canon scenes and canon characters and such. it is disgusting how much this game motivates me to pick up a pencil and write or draw NOTHING has ever pushed me like this

[vermanaward]

[rambling post about how ysayle and thordan are narrative foils goes here]

[devotedlystrangewizard]

sometimes you just gotta play a game for 750 hours only to then realize the reason a plotline seemed to be cut off weirdly (a plotline you ended around the 100hour mark) was because it was continued in a side questline that you began, only to not continue because you thought it was just to unlock the extreme versions of instances in the main story questline, and not to unlock more instances and the conclusion of that plotline

[dualcastimpact]

dawntrail impressions pt. iv

In which we head to Urqopacha and Kozama'uka for the Feat of Gold and the Feat of Reeds, featuring t-posing Alphinaud!

Spoilers below the cut, as always:

First up: Urqopacha! There was no real reason for choosing to go to Urqopacha over Kozama'uka, I think. There doesn't seem to be any reason for the choice either; there's no advantage over choosing one over the other, and the story doesn't change regardless of which. I thought it was a relatively new addition to the game, the whole choose-your-path thing in the first level of the expansion, but then I realised it's been a thing since Heavensward — it was choosing between accompanying Artoirel or Emmanellain then, and in Stormblood it was choosing between M'naago and Meffrid. Then in Shadowbringers you had to choose between going to Amh Araeng to meet Alisaie or Kholusia to meet Alphinaud first, and in Endwalker it was either going to Labyrinthos in Sharlayan with Y'shtola and the twins or Thavnair with Estinien, Thancred and Urianger.

I'm a bit embarrassed it took me so long to notice, to be honest.

Alphinaud: "That one massive peak in particular has quite the presence. It puts me in mind of Sohm Al."

Alphinaud: "I feel the change in altitude most keenly. While mayhap not to the same degree as the Sea of Clouds, the air is decidedly thin here."

The writing tends to make fun of this but Alphinaud is nothing but genuine whenever he calls back to his past adventures. He especially tends to reminisce about his experiences during Heavensward; it's become sort of a running gag with Alisaie getting exasperated whenever he brings up firewood-gathering, but I think it's more poignant than anything. He brings up his experiences from Heavensward so often because they're important to him. It's in Heavensward that he really grew up and became a better person after the clusterfuck that was post-ARR, and the way he sincerely and somewhat innocently references his experiences in Heavensward every so often just shows how much of an impact they had on him.

———

Krile: "Wuk Lamat is lucky to have Erenville. Everyone—royalty especially—needs a friend unafraid to chide them when the need arises."

Raginmar canonically plays that role for three royals — well, not sure if Aymeric counts as royalty but I digress. He absolutely holds no punches with Aymeric and Hien; he regularly gives Hien shit (especially regarding his feelings about Cirina) whenever he drops by the Doman Enclave, and he's extremely blunt whenever Aymeric asks for his opinion over their dinners together. He wasn't as close with Nanamo, but their adventures together in the Sil'dihn Subterrane changed that a little bit — he's not so blunt with her like he is with Aymeric and Hien, but he does tend to be more open and honest with her.

I like how we're not really playing that role for Wuk Lamat this time. I think post-Endwalker somewhat prepped us for this — the main character for post-Endwalker was Zero, not the Warrior of Light, and it remains the case for Dawntrail as well. We're not the most important chess piece on the board anymore, and I like that.

———

Alphinaud: "Converting to gil, that comes to around a million or so. Mayhap if we all pitch in..."

This is absolutely a reference to his mishap with buying Gosetsu's katana back in Stormblood (laughs). He's become so conscientious about money now!

———

Krile: "You've seen markets and bazaars the world over, and surely have sage advice to share."

This was a bit funny because I took this screenshot back when I'd still planned for Raginmar to be an uninvolved third party who just happened to be in Wachunpelo at the time, doing business buying mezcal and mate leaves and coffee beans and selling furs and heavy fabrics and prize crops and mead, and I thought Krile's comment was incredibly on the nose. "You've seen markets and bazaars the world over" exactly, he's here on business right now!

Of course that idea went out the window eventually but at the time I really had a good laugh at this.

———

Tobli: "Mablu hasn't given up, I see..."

Given up on what, my guy?

———

Ah, turns out Mablu has always wanted to become a merchant, but thought it'd be a betrayal of Tobli since he'd taken care of her like his own. In true shōnen manga hero form, Wuk Lamat inspires her to chase her own dreams, and she proves herself to be a promising aspiring merchant as she helps Wuk Lamat progress through the Feat of Gold.

I spent most of this sequence writing down notes so I could figure out how to fit Raginmar into the Feat — maybe Gobli had sold the premium three-year-old mezcal to him, and Wuk Lamat and Mablu would have to figure out a way to get it from him instead — so I didn't take a lot of screenshots, but it was a pretty fun sequence! The way it introduced the people and culture of Urqopacha to both Wuk Lamat and the audience felt organic; it felt like we were learning alongside Wuk Lamat and I loved that.

From the get-go, it was clear that the Feats were intended to connect the claimants to the peoples of Tuliyollal — to learn their history, their culture, what's important to them and what made them tick; all the things a ruler should know about their people. How the claimants respond to this is key to determining their worthiness to the throne.

It's a classic trope and it's not even remotely subtle, but I think it's fine. Sometimes I wonder if stories like this shouldn't be made even simpler considering how people nowadays find simple media literacy so challenging.

———

Alisaie: "Alphinaud was quick to lend a hand with dismantling the tent. Is this to be his new obsession now that he's mastered collecting firewood?"

I don't know if it's just me feeling maudlin right now, but at times Alisaie making fun of Alphinaud like this feels more aggravating than humourous. Like I said, I get that Alphinaud's earnest enthusiasm is a running gag throughout the game but making fun of something that genuine and sincere feels off-putting to me.

The way he keeps talking about how he's good at firewood-gathering is meant to demonstrate how despite his character growth, he still has moments that shows his naïveté — firewood-gathering isn't a particularly impressive skill, he only thinks that way because of his sheltered upbringing. He opens himself up to ridicule whenever he acts as if this is something incredible he's learned to master, because to him it was. He's genuine about this, and to make matters worse he genuinely wants to be helpful whenever he brings it up. That's how impactful his experiences in Heavensward was for him, and I think the way the game keeps treating it as a running gag feels tasteless sometimes.

He's not even talking about gathering firewood at this point! He's branching out, even! Why are you still giving him shit about it?!

———

Alphinaud: "So this is a Hanuhanu village! One can tell at a glance how very different their culture is to the Vanu's.

Sue me for being sentimental but it genuinely brings a tear to my eye how Alphinaud's so enthusiastic about learning about the world now, compared to the absolute self-absorbed shithead that he was in ARR. He's genuinely so excited about learning new things and having all these new experiences as he travels the world and it's such a great show of character development, even after so many expansions.

———

Bakool Ja Ja the Mighty: "These allies of hers, though... They might be a problem."

One thing I really like is how none of the claimants are so arrogant so as to be foolish when it comes to underestimating their opponents. In fact no one underestimates anybody, not even Bakool Ja Ja. He's arrogant and boastful and supremely full of himself, and he's dismissive of Wuk Lamat because he doesn't like her (and later on we'll see that he actually does respect her, he just feels that he has to act like he's better than everyone), but he knows perfectly well how much of a threat Raginmar is. He's not fool enough to dismiss that.

There's a lot of chatter on the birbsite about how much it sucks that the Warrior of Light is no longer the main character of the story, and how they've been relegated to this sidekick character who's not getting much focus. It's real baffling because sure Wuk Lamat is the main character of the story, but the game's narrative makes it damn clear how important the Warrior of Light is still. Everybody knows how skilled the Warrior of Light is, and how they're not to be underestimated. They're a threat. They're a gamechanger. While the Warrior of Light isn't the most important piece on the board right now, they're still pretty damn significant and it's acknowledged, unlike in previous expansions with characters like Artoirel very clearly looking down on the Warrior of Light. That's way better than being your stock shōnen manga-slash-JRPG protagonist.

———

Linuhanu: "Yes, it hurt to hear, but she was right. Though I must mourn, I cannot let my grief consume me."

Linuhanu: "Her words made me realize that the path to my recover—our recovery—is already laid out before me. And I will walk it. For myself, and for my friend."

Every time the game makes some overt reference to grieving and mourning those gone, I immediately think back to Haurchefant — and not in a good way. I think this is more to set up something later on regarding Wuk Lamat and Gulool Ja Ja (because that man is raising all the death flags) but at the same time, the game's been pushing the whole thing with Haurchefant so often and for so long that you can't really divorce any mention of grief from his death.

Even the PCT job questline had something similar — I think it was in Camp Dragonhead when Kupopo asks the Warrior of Light about their adventures there, and the Warrior answers that they'd lost someone important to them? The exact phrasing eludes me but it's still a reference to Haurchefant. At this point it's honestly doing the game more disservice than anything, I feel.

———

Koana: "A method I could not have devised without the education I received at the Studium and the cooperation of my Archon allies."

For context, the Feat of Reeds required the claimants to revitalise the dying paddy fields that the Hanuhanu rely on, while the Feat of Gold back in Urqopacha required the claimants to catch a wild alpaca. They serve to demonstrate how Zoraal Ja and Koana differ from Wuk Lamat; in the Feat of Gold, Zoraal Ja eschewed any advice and went and caught a rare golden alpaca all by himself, purely by threatening the alpaca into submission. In contrast, Wuk Lamat went through the motions of getting to know the Pelupelu's culture and getting herself a saddle to catch a wild alpaca the Pelupelu way.

Here in Kozama'uka, Koana brought the paddy fields back to life with an alchemical concoction to improve the aether flow in the fields. Wuk Lamat revived Ihih'hana, a traditional harvest festival that also served to amplify the arcane energies from the Hanuhanu's hopes and prayers to revitalise the land. In true shōnen manga-slash-JRPG hero form, Wuk Lamat's revival of Ihih'hana had no logical bearing whatsoever. She didn't know it'd do anything to help revitalise the fields until Alphinaud suggested it could and Wuk Evu confirmed it. The only reason it worked was because it just so happened to be the exact thing the Hanuhanu needed, not just to revive their fields but also to revive the Hanuhanu themselves. The only reason it worked was because the plot mandated it so.

Koana's method, on the other hand, was rooted in reason and science. It was the logical method, it was the reasonable solution, and by all accounts it's a more superior answer because it directly addressed the issue — but it's framed as lesser because it didn't take into account the Hanuhanu's culture and the real reason behind their dispiritedness, even though Wuk Lamat really only got lucky that her idea worked at all. In a way, it's a weaker aesop than the one about Zoraal Ja and Wuk Lamat in Urqopacha — that strength alone is not enough, and that one would not need to resort to brute strength when there's community. It's still an aesop about the value of community and culture, only here it's that technological advancements alone are not enough even though they get the job done, but if you think about it realistically, when the stakes are so high — when your people are actively starving and suffering from natural disasters and poor harvest seasons — is addressing the issue as quickly and efficiently as you can really the wrong way to go about it?

———

Koana: "Employed appropriately, they make light work of what would otherwise be arduous labor. There's no need to lug around heavy floats!"

This whole scene was designed to showcase how Koana is a foil to Wuk Lamat: Koana is rational, analytical and scientific-minded, but he's also dismissive of things he perceives as backwards or uncivilized like customs and traditions that other people would hold dear. Whether he intends it or not, his words come across as mocking; even in the JP dub where his tone is mild and his dialogue ends with a —ね?. We see later in the story how he's extremely fond of Wuk Lamat so he's not maliciously making fun of her, but it makes clear his derision for the Hanuhanu's traditional practices for how outdated and inefficient they are.

———

Erenville: "There is an alternative, but it requires preparation. Until it's ready, you could rest at the cabins or see more of the city. Whatever you prefer."

This is where I'd planned for Raginmar to officially join Wuk Lamat's entourage in that scrapped canon I'd mentioned before (you can read all about that here and why that canon didn't work here) because it'd seemed like the perfect opening, but then...

Fonjeantaine: "Then... you have experience with my predicament? Of being terribly inadequate compared to your undeniably superior peers?"

...Wuk Lamat just so happened to chip her axe and she just so happened to come across a soul in need of aid at the place she's getting her axe fixed and he just so happened to have the same insecurities that she has, that she has to confront within herself in order to both learn a lesson and console him. Of course.

The story is contrived as hell, but at this point you really just have to accept it. Also I KNEW he was going to play a role in the plot when he was the only named character in that talk-to-the-other-passengers sequence at the beginning of the expansion.

———

Fonjeantaine: "But what of you? Have you ever measured your work against that of your colleagues and found yourself wanting...?"

Asking the wrong guy, buddy. That said, Raginmar doesn't waste time comparing himself to others and worrying that he's lacking. He'll be as skilled as he wants to be, and he doesn't need anyone to be his benchmark. If there are other people more skilled than him, it's not his problem.

———

Koana: "I'd heard much of the incomparable Archons during my time at the Studium. As soon as the contest was confirmed, I thought who better to recruit to my cause? I contacted the scholarch, who arranged an introduction to these two gentlemen."

Urianger: "The Second Promise had specific requirements: they who would be his assistants must boast both proven survival skills and mastery of the arcane arts."

It's a little funny that if Raginmar had agreed to become an Archon — which he absolutely could have, thanks to his skill in arcanima and engineering — he would have fulfilled both those requirements all by himself.

I also think it's kinda funny there's basically a PhD-equivalent for having survival skills. It's like Bear Grylls getting a PhD from Cambridge for being a survival expert.

———

Thancred: "We did our due diligence, of course, and made sure of who were working with before agreeing to this endeavor. He's even more opaque than Urianger at times, but is surprisingly—"

Surprisingly what, Thancred?! Tell us!

———

Wuk Lamat: "I don't have Koana's education or Zoraal Ja's strength. I'm all bluff and bravado, not fit to bear my title..."

Krile: "To hear the voices of others, empathize with how they feel, and think how best to serve... In so doing, you'll come ever closer to being the person you wish to be."

I'm not going to touch on the whole crisis of confidence and Wuk Lamat's character development arc in growing out of her insecurity and all that, because this story is essentially your typical shōnen manga-slash-JRPG tropes condensed into half an expansion, but I do want to point out the whole "hear, feel, think" thing — you'd think they'd retire the reference altogether after Hydaelyn's passing. I know it's been this game's arc words for basically forever, but now I'm wondering if they'll ever retire it or if it'll be another Haurchefant situation.

Because honestly speaking...

Thancred: "I imagine your experiences on this journey—all the things you'll hear, feel, and think—will help you refine that approach."

...was there any real need for the arc words to be repeated in this different-yet-parallel scene with Koana, just to hammer it home?

———

Koana: "But what of you two? Wuk Lamat's allies are your comrades, it must feel strange to be rivals."

Thancred: "Helping you has made us rivals, aye, but we're not about to break into fisticuffs over it."

Thancred: "Unless of course it is a matter of winning or losing the contest. Then I'll have no qualms about putting Alisaie on her rear."

Real interesting you chose to talk about kicking Alisaie's ass instead of someone like, say, Raginmar.

Urianger: "Despite our long history, never have I been given the chance to test myself against our companions. The thought stirreth within a most unexpected sense of competition."

Contemplating this bit because I had a headcanon about a Grand Melee 2.0 after the Final Days have been averted or something. Maybe what's remaining of the Garleans joined, maybe it's just the Grand Company of Eorzea and their allies (including the now-disbanded Scions, who join as independent combatants) having a melee for funsies or something, but essentially it's Raginmar and his old squadron facing off against everyone else after he thoughtlessly made a comment about how not even the combined might of the Grand Company could defeat his former subordinates, and Hien and Pipin took offense.

There's more to the story, obviously, but basically if this is canon to Raginmar's lore, then that negates everything Urianger just said because then he'd absolutely have had the chance to test himself against his companions, and gotten his ass kicked for it (laughs).

———

Koana: "Lamaty'i has surrounded herself with distinguished figures indeed. One of the Studium's finest graduates. The head of the Students of Baldesion..."

Koana: "And then there's Eorzea's vaunted champion. If he's half the hero you say, then the odds are stacked against us."

It's a real pretty way of saying you're screwed and have no chance whatsoever, truth be told.

———

Next up: the Feat of Pots!

[tankclub]

how would you rate the expansions so far?

it really depends on the criteria. overall i think that ffxiv has gotten better with every expansion, even if i dont always like all of the changes.

more details and rambling under the cut

ok so i broke it out into a few different categories, and i'll rate the expansions on each one:

X.0 MSQ

stormblood

endwalker

shadowbringers

a realm reborn

heavensward

here I'm just talking about the basic MSQ as it launched for the expansion. I put stormblood much higher than most people because I loved the lesbian road trip arc and I loved the azim steppe. the expansion certainly has flaws, but the strong points were really strong.

endwalker tops shadowbringers for me because the elpis section was the only thing that really got me to care about the ancients/ascians, and i think it was necessary context for the whole story arc of the game thus far. endwalker has some issues with pacing and with weakness in the downtime sections (and they clearly didnt know what to do with garlemald, a casualty of the game's shift in focus around shadowbringers).

the others i think are relatively straightforward. i've posted in the past about how i dont like the heavensward story, i think that it kind of botches its themes and the writers got too horny for killing women (in this case ysayle) to tell a good story. it also absolutely squanders the 2.5/55 setup with the ul'dah stuff.

Patch MSQ (X.1, X.2, etc.)

endwalker

a realm reborn

heavensward

shadowbringers

stormblood

endwalker is miles ahead in this category. although its patch story has weaknesses, being able to tell a whole coherent story from 6.1-6.5, without having to have the weird "second climax" for the X.0 story in X.3, puts it ahead of the competition.

ARR scores highly mainly because of just how well the banquet/ul'dah/crystal brave stuff hits. they wasted all of these story threads in heavensward, but especially at the time they absolutely worked.

heavensward makes third because i think it's the only expansion that really made the "x.3 climax" actually work, which is partly down to how the themes of the story worked with "oh and theres more even after you win the climactic battle".

shadowbringers is pretty low for me because i think that its a casualty of the change in narrative leadership. elidibus had been being set up as "the ascian you will talk to", so introducing emet to take that role left him kind of at loose ends. ive played the patch storyline several times to try and understand why people love it so much, and it just never landed for me.

stormblood patch story is the worst this game has ever been. i would put it lower than last if i could

Raids and Jobs

I kinda combined the experience of endgame play into one category, so I'm rating both job design and raid quality here. as the devs said recently, these things are linked, so i didnt think it made sense to separate them. more than the other categories i think this one is influenced by my personal circumstances

shadowbringers

endwalker

heavensward

a realm reborn

stormblood

shadowbringers takes the top spot for my favorite job design (in my beloved shb summoner), a top-class raid series in eden, and the best ultimate raid in TEA.

endwalker i think is really good and a step forward in many ways, but i think the issues with the centralization around 2m burst and inflation of boss hitbox size hold it back from the top spot for me. however, i do like a lot of the additions like criterion, and i hope they continue a lot of what theyve done in this expansion.

i had to put heavensward above arr because it's a straightforward continuation of arr, and also had my second favorite job design in the history of this game (in heavensward warrior, which was broken, goofy, and always fun). also alexander is a fantastic raid, even though coil is more nostalgic for me personally.

stormblood takes the last spot because i didnt enjoy the way the jobs played during that expansion, and mostly skipped it. i was unsubbed for a substantial portion of it, and really only started playing again in the leadup to shadowbringers. possibly i should leave it off this list altogether, simply because i couldnt have evaluated it properly.

Overall

so, i if i combine all of those ratings (weighted equally), i end up with:

endwalker

shadowbringers

a realm reborn

tie between stormblood and heavensward

which i think summarizes my opinions fairly nicely, although as you can see each of the expansions has their strengths.

overall im very excited for dawntrail, and i think it has the potential to be (and likely will be) the best expansion the game has had to date.

[bumofthewild]

hi ive been following for a bit and noticed ur playing ffxiv and are in heavensward! i just wanted to stop by to say i recommend playing dark knight; the quests are fun and i think u would like the characters in there. as a heavensward job, the quests from 50-60 help round out the setting a bit more (wrt the dragonsong war, the systems in place in ishgard, those w power vs the victims, etc) which i think makes it a good job to pick up while progressing. it helps that theres some p funny shit that happens too. i <3 moogles

omg thankyou i appreciate it! :] i actually did pick up the quest bc i like tanking but have been postponing it bc the main story has really grabbed a hold of me but you are right. ishgard is probably the most interesting thing in the entire game to me rn so i will get back to it this weekend then o7 fray seems so cute lol T___T feel like i genuinely forgot about this quest until now help

iwill use this ask as an opportunity to say i am actually pretty particular about being told things before i get to them myself (unfortunately for my friends who have to deal w me getting angry at them about this often) but i understand i can be an outlier when it comes to wanting to know absolutely zero about something. curating my online exprience and all that. just a heads up for ppl who might message me in the future but i think it's best for me to say this now!

anyways, ty for following me for a bit and sharing your ffxiv excitement with me! i've really been enjoying it except for the vault and i have a lot of ffxiv stuff i want to draw soon (i actually hopped onto tumblr to post about it lol) so i hope you can look forward to some ffxiv fanart from me soon hopefully crycry. in the meanwhile have a haurchefant i drew on the weekend bc he's all i have drawn from this game so far

[happy-tori-friends]

Please elaborate on your ffxiv au 👀

- 🐑 Anon

its nothing concrete but i just like ffxiv...

some spoilers for everything - including endings shadowbringers and endwalker (everyone should play shadowbringers its so good)

i imagine its like an isekai just for funsies, so dont and did have to adjust to not having their abilities. and also being turned into the ffxiv races. they basically wake up on the cart/boat (i think alphinaud and alisae will be going to limsa via the boat in this au... idk if i'll ever write it but if its something ppl wanna see i am Willing...). tho they all have the echo. technically dungeons are meant to be 4 player but for our intents and purposes we're gonna ignore that. its My AU i get to make the rules

as for jobs... splendont is a marauder/warrior, splendid is a gladiator/paladin, flippy is an arcanist - for jobs he'd be a scholar and fliq would be summoner (tho fliq would also do reaper i think)

idk what the twins would start as but theyd end up switching to rogue/ninja asap, tho lifty would go machinist in heavensward and ive toyed with viper shifty. probably archer for a starting class just for gridania rep. i started at maurader on lifty just for easier access to rogue but that doesnt really matter. rip to splendid who is all alone in ul'dah.

now races... the twins are miqo'te, specifically keepers of the moon (bc thats what i made lifty)... maybe wildwood elezen. and flippy... xaela au ra (im an au ra lover... my main's an au ra and i have a secondary character thats also an au ra who i made to pair with estinien bc i like him was the second option for shipping my main w b4 i went with my beloved g'raha. i was gonna put a picture of my main, honoka miyashiro, here but i forgor. lovingly known as honk.) i was thinking au ra for super bros but i think flippy au ra is better. still not sold on elezen tho. maybe hyur? 23rd the 2nd benchmark comes out maybe i'll make them in that? theyre gonna questioned for their names but... oh well.

ive done arr a few times but ive only played the 2.1+ patches very little (im not done with post endwalker yet either i just started 6.4 but i started levelling reaper after the last trial) so i dont remember Too much (im gonna new game plus some things + i could stream ffxiv lifty's adventures) but i do remember many key moments. i'll put a cut here bc im gonna get into story events

i pulled up to the inn to look at the unending journey. but the openings are basically the same except flippy and dont are working together + the twins are too, and the city-states all send out envoys to each other for funny 'oh hey we all had the same idea lmao' moments and they all get directed to go to investigate sastasha (not b4 the twins take up rogue, getting disappointed when they realize they're actually supposed to maintain the code) where they all meet again and everyone is like 'yay thank god you're okay' and of course after copperbell and beating up some dick, all the scions show up and say "hey you're pretty cool join our club :)'

okay i haven't thought too much about story things in main arr + what grand company they join. but. i think if i go the route of different events being focused more on different characters in place of the wol, splendid being the one to be framed for poisoning nanamo might work best bc he does start in ul'dah + being framed like that kinda fucks with him mentally - 'i should've been more diligent, i shouldn't have just picked something up and kept it, how could i have been so blind?' and being considered traitorous + seeing all that happened at the bloody banquet is. well it's... a lot, especially for him (though he probably thinks he should be used to it considering canon htf but in see what develops he did get sick when he saw mime's body. i think. may in fact be misremembering).

splendont holding the twins close to him as they want into ishgard bc its cold and they can barely see through the snow... and the twins thinking 'we've done something good for once, we were celebrated as heroes and this is what we get?'

stormblood i dont have too many thoughts on either but if i go the route of flippy (or well fliqpy really) being the one to be zenos's main rival... i think fliq and zenos would have fun banter. also he would 100% do the reckless thing with yugiri and try to kill him with very little plan.

i think when there's split paths they do split up (aka at the beginning of expansions where there's different quest chains to start with) but thats all i've really thought about so far regarding some beginnings... i do know that i want splendont and the twins to be the ones to go to amh araeng bc them witnessing tesleen would be - that is if i even end up having flippy and splendid in shadowbringers bc they might stay back to help tataru and stuff... but having did there would make it a bit more painful so i dont know. splendont is considered the shard of azem here, (dont ask how if its an isekai its just how things seem to be rolling) and the one feo ul bonds with so it all ends up working out. also the exarch barely managing to bring all 3 (or 5) over when he finally gets it right is funny.

back on the subject of them having seen tesleen transform, it genuinely freaked them the fuck out and fearing it could happen to dont, lifty and shifty probably beg splendont to let them dispell some of the lightwardens' aether especially when y'shtola mistakes him for a sin eater and after qitana ravel where y'shtola is sure it is being absorbed and tells him to inform her of any side effects. but splendont says 'Absolutely Not. i can deal with it i'm not letting Anything happen to you.'

after malikh's well when he starts having pain and getting sick they beg him again, but he again puts his foot down. they fight about it, and the twins spend the night in a different room in pendants (they cant see ardbert anyways and have just thought splendont was seeing things).

things are tense throughout kholusia, and its very clear that lifty and shifty are afraid of what will happen when they kill the final lightwarden. then their fears are proven true when innocence is killed and splendont starts to turn because he cant contain the light and the sky they worked so hard to bring night back to reverts to the eternal day.

and despite the tension, despite the pain, he looks at them and says 'i promise... i'll be fine. i didn't want this to happen to you.'

'you fucking moron, this wouldn't have happened... if we shared the light,' shifty retorts but he and lifty are too afraid to get close, especially with urianger being weird. and all this time theyve gone with this in hopes of finding a way home, and now they might lose splendont and it feels like they'll never get home.

there's a lot of emotions going on with the exarch reveal bc they also dont want him to sacrifice himself just for splendont either but theres no other choice is there and then emet-selch comes in and that little bit of hope is dashed. and though ryne delays the inevitable it is still, at that moment, inevitable. they do their best to help the scions look for a way to save him but it's very clear that they're pessimistic, heartbroken. afraid that it's true that everyone they hold dear to them is destined to be taken away. if theyd fought harder, if they could have been more convincing...

i have more thoughts about shadowbringers (mostly with the twins being afraid splendont is taking up emet's offer) but i'll skip to the end so if i do write it i dont end up spoiling everything. but after ardbert fuses with splendont, lifty and shifty join him to fight hades alongside whoever else the exarch summoned... and when all is said and done and it's revealed that splendont is no longer being corrupted by the light, after they return to the source and have reported to tataru and krile, and they take a moment to breathe... they plead with him to let them bear some of his burdens, just as they let him do. even if it's for their sake, neither of them want him to do anything like that ever again, and they make him promise. they all cry about it, even dont, because Fuck that was probably so stressful. he does tell them what happened with ardbert though.

endwalker... endwalker. ultima thule in particular. while fliq would be the one to fight zenos at the end if i go the 'everyone has a part to play', and probably the one that gets posessed in 'in from the cold' i think i want dont to be the last one standing in ultima thule and extend it a little bit, in particular so lifty and shifty can sacrifice themselves for him. and at the very end when they are alone again he tells them not to scare him like that again. lifty responds with. 'it was like that for us too. that's why we made that promise. your burden was to go forward, and we helped you bear it.'

'we came back anyways,' shifty adds, but he 100% expected to just. be dead forever. theres a lot of crying again. ffxiv makes me emotional so it makes the characters emotional.

also in elpis splendont being like 'i am a familiar of azem.' and shifty confidently goes 'yeah and we're his familiars' and lifty facepalms. 'thats absolutely not how it works, shifty.'

of course none of this is fully set in stone. flippy and splendid might not even be included at all bc a lot of my thoughts are mostly dont lifty and shifty save for zenos n fliq (if i go this route, one of the twins would be made a pugilist and start in ul'dah) bc i dont have many ideas for the twins to have wol major moments other than thinking about them being framed for poisoning nanamo instead of splendid. this also got really long... i'm gonna have to do this arent i? ffxiv au yes or no poll when.

[plounce]

as someone whos played ffxiv for almost 8 years now i gotta say its SO exciting to see youve started playing. i really enjoy seeing you talking about trc and kurofai (unfortunately i know absolutely nothing about xmen so it goes right over my head) and so im excited to see any thoughts you have about the ffxiv story and characters!

HEEHEEHEE. most of my ffxivposting has been in a thread on my twt priv, but after the recent botslaughter im gonna try and move it over here.

im at the beginning of stormblood. here are my thoughts:

as i said previously, in ARR i was very meh on alphinaud. i have a grudge against his ARR va (due to critical role), i was like "WHY are we starting a PARAMILITARY ORG", and i was kind of like hey. im playing a 6ft tall elf lady with a huge axe. you fancy little twerp dont boss me around. the end of ARR was soooo crazy and good though, really kicked the plot into gear for me, and those cutscenes were like WHOA!! OMG THE GUY FROM THE BEGINNING CUTSCENE... and in heavensward he became my little boy. because he basically reversed all the things i didnt really like about him. new VA. constant regret and shame about the crystal braves. and everyone was like awww hahaha youre a nice little boy. and he is. he is a boy. and he's polite. and he got a new outfit that covered his midriff, which i appreciated.

minfillia... im sorry. her VA was so insanely bad. and i never really DID anything with her that made me feel attached to her. she felt very bland and generic. i was like okay cool 👍 see ya. i also think her outfit was so blaaaahhhh like it gave me girl next door final fantasy character, NOT leader of an NGO, which would have been more appealing to me.

y'shtola: one of my mutuals is constantly posting her very cute WoL/yshtola fanart and i thought i would like a bit more than i presently do... i like her! i just feel like she hasnt gotten to do very much that isnt going "hmm.. aether." i think it's delightful that she shares a VA with sera from dragon age. bitches with bangs 4 lesbians

urianger: when i first saw urianger i was aghast. i was like. PEOPLE ARE HORNY FOR THAT THING? but now that ive seen more of his shb/edw outfit im like aha i see. you have gender. you're either like "do not perceiveth me" or "dripping with gold in a lightweight backless gown". i really enjoyed his undercover outfit with the WoD. i don't think he did anything wrong. he was like "yeah i did lie to everyone and help manipulate events to send minfilia to a different data center. i feel absolutely awful about it, i wish my trolley problem principles had not made me deceiveth thou all, i am a horrible villain, pray do not feel compelled to forgive me" and i was like nah youre good 👍 like she isnt DEAD. plus he always tried to help me a little bit when he could. i like his funny voice. i like how in ARR he was voiced by fenris dragonage. take those goggles and hood off again mx tism

tataru: if lalafells didn't look like that. i would be shipping my WoL with her. i think she is so cute and fun and a delight. she is a joy. my girl JUGGLES!!!!! she makes OUTFITS!!!!!!!!! she has A KETTLE WITH A FANCY NAME!!!!!!!!!! and she works so hard. im so glad she got to come with us to ishgard. she is my joy. my light...

thancred: i have heard tell that he really leaves behind his initial lothario characterization, and i really have not seen it in forever, which made ARR thancred perfectly fine to me. i was prepared for him to be much more egregious. i wish i knew him a bit better before he got possessed. i was like oh okay! yeah i guess i havent seen him in a while. which made me sad because i love possession storylines i think they are so juicy. his ponytail and rattee (like a ratstache but a goatee) are funny to me. thancred nakey images were funny. there was a moment towards the end of hvw when he came back and i talked to him in ishgard between convos with nobles and he said stuff that was very commiserating and i was like okay i have decided you and my WoL are complaining friends. sipping the haterade together. i think he's like 5'7". like with alphinaud, the character development in this game has really surprised me with how effective it feels. i look forward to seeing him grimly yet compassionately fail forward even more. and to be a single dad. aforementioned mutual (who i know through klapollo) is into thancred/urianger so im also looking forward to confining them into the yaoi compartment

cid: HE IS MY FRIEND :) i love how he's a short king. i like how he was simply like "fascism and imperialism are bad. i am going to go fight against it by building big airships :)" no qualms no struggle just knew what was right and went and did it. he's like a gay older coworker who you go out for drinks with sometimes and invites you to barbeques. i enjoy him and nero's turbodivorce saga.

alisaie: i completely forgot to do all the bahamut raids in ARR so when she showed up post-hvw i was like oh it's time for the girltwin! and she was like "oh we've worked together already :)" and i was like oh god. we only had one conversation. oops. so far i think she's a delight. i have heard that she's a bit of a lesbo. good for her. love that she gets a sword and she gets to be the mean one of the two twins. i cant wait for her little red jacket. looking forward to more >:)

krile: have not seen much of her so far but i LOVE how she has a cloak with cat ears, so cute. LOVE how she teases alphinaud. im like yes... shared character history... quite fun...

ysayle: I LOVE YOU DRAGON ELSAGARD I LOVE YOUUUUUU BIIIIIIIIITCH... I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU. i love her style. i love her political convictions. i love her gap moe with the moogles. i think my WoL had a crush on her. i think it's messed up that during the scene where the WoL and alphinaud are prying the eyes off of estinien, she touches alphinaud's hand. she should be touching MY HAND!!!!!!!!!!!! all love to haurchefaunt but I BONDED WITH HER.

estinien: i know many people like estinien. every time he spoke a word at ysayle i felt like a barking like her guard dog. DONT YOU SPEAK TO MY GIRL IN THAT TONE YOU BROODYBOY SMELLMAN. SHUT UP. i assume he softens up now that he is retired from All That. i thought his relationship with alphinaud was very sweet - i liked when he taught alphinaud how to gather firewood. i think my WoL only tolerates estinien because alphinaud is so attached.

haurchefant: i was still barely reading dialogue in ARR when he was introduced. so he showed up and was like OMG HI AGAIN BESTIE!!!!!! and i was like oh! that man! one of my friends is gaymarried to him so he's like my gay brother-in-law. i am a lesbian and my WoL is also a lesbian so we were hagging/tyking (dyke tyke) out with each other. the facial animation on the WoL when he croaks was astoundingly good. i call him horsey

aymeric: well he certainly is competent, principled, and nice. one of the more handsome elezen men in the game. i know he's implied playersexual so i really need him to stop inviting me to dinner because i have had conversations with dude friends like that before and it is so painfully awkward. i think it is great that he committed fratricide AND popecide. wahoo!

lyse: i really enjoyed yda. yknow. i thought she was such a fun cockney karate bimbo. i didn't know she was lyse. i've heard about lyse. and how she is conspicuously the only blonde blue-eyed ala mhigan. and how she is a source of some of the collar-tugging politics in stormblood. sigh. so. i am now burdened with her.

raubahn: I LOVE RAUBAHNNNNNNNNNN I LOVE HIMMMM i love how he has a small adult son. i love how he is trying so hard. i love how he is so righteous and hardworking. the misery lolorito and ilberd put him through during hvw made me so mad on his behalf. when lolorito was like "oh, how we laughed at how upset you were!" i was like RAUBAHN. HE IS THE PERFECT HEIGHT FOR YOU TO JUST PUNT ACROSS THE TOWN SQUARE. PUNT HIM RAUBAHN. YOU DESERVE IT. and i love a one-armed king. kurogane swag

lucia: i think she is cool and fun. hahaha dont potentially be in love with aymeric queen youre so hot and cool and butch

matoya: SHE'S SO COOL. I LOVE HER DESIGN. HER VOICE ACTING. AND HER RUDENESS. AND OF COURSE THE FROGS

moenbryda: i thought she was so fun and cool. i was like cool!! new character!! big funny woman i love it!! and then near bluefog she dished about her childhood a little and i was like... is that a deathflag. and it was :(

okay thats all the npcs i can think to have anything to say about.

i was pleasantly surprised by the way that lalafells are not the lolibait/shotabait i had grimly prepared for them to be. they are just short funny guys for the most part. moving past that, i then got slammed into by the giant brick that says "BEAST TRIBES". i heard that the new writer has made their writing a lot better (apparently the alliance leaders acknowledge that they have been basically been doing genocide on these sentient beings, which is helping me push forward through stuff)! i do their quests really regularly because i like helping them out. i would really love to see someone with more expertise on the subject write about the presentation of indigenous peoples in ffxiv, because i think that there is a lot going on that is vital to critically inspect.

i have to go eat dinner now. but i will try to post more thoughts on here as i have them >:)

[deaths]

i love imagining estinien as one of the few cis scions where hes gnc but transguy alphinaud immediately sees him as gender goals/envy throughout heavensward

OH TOTALLY!!!!! ive been thinking about it a lot and that scene where estinien confuses alisaie for alphinaud its because he knows alphinaud is trans but not which way LOL speaking of which, i need your thoughts.... what is thancreds gender (holds out a mic)

[repl1c4nt]

ffxvi desperately tries to grapple with its identity as a final fantasy game while also trying to be something the series has never been before (m rated game of thronesesque dark fantasy) and honestly i think that internal conflict really is what kills the game most because it is at its best when it sheds its expectations as a final fantasy title and becomes its own thing with gripping political drama and high stakes in a less world-ending way. ultima kills just about all intrigue the story builds up which is especially disappointing because Annabella worked incredibly well as the games primary antagonist.. her and olivier were fumbled severely imo you cant get any cooler than THE! dion lesage having an actual unspoken war with a 10 yo

there was no reason (in my opinion!!!!!!!!!) to bring ultima into the mix and change the stakes so rapidly and drastically. wow this man is being manipulated by his evil cousin fucking wife into dragging the entire continent into a pointless war all while theres disloyalty stirring among the knights dragoon led by his OWN son but its all just ultima. like ok whatever but annabella would have made a vastly more interesting antagonist liek :P but of course it has a long history of intergalatic threats (usually god adjacent) that Should be the antagonists because its what final fantasy is. stakes larger than life, epic battles and flashy effects, i know i keep comparing ffxvi to heavensward, and i generally dont do that when criticizing games but i feel like its warrented for this: how thordan functions as an antagonist and final boss vs ultima

i think the most obvious difference is thordan is there and apparent since the beginning however ultima serves roughly the same purpose as lahabrea the background scheming ever-present force manipulating the game however lahabrea is merely a conduit by which thordan achieves his goal of being the god-king and not the surprise twist antagonist there to shed every character of their interesting appeal. barnabas suffers the most from this being easily the most interesting man here (i struggle to really say id like to see more of barnabas given what we do see of him is.............Well)but no matter what glimpses of his psyche we do get the allure is non existent because hes not a character in any meaningful way hes Just an extra limb to ultima who ultimately serves no narrative purpose besides saying cryptic things and be a boss fight (admittedly his fight is good. maybe the most ive struggled in the game which i mean as a compliment that dps check was brutal barely made it through by the skin of my neck spamming max potions when i could and relying solely on lb haha) where lahabrea acts as the mysterious force pushing the plot along hes only relegated to a dungeon boss as opposed to a trial because narratively it isnt lahabrea who wants this its thordan. its by his own hands that his god king form is achieved he feels like an actual character... barnabas is there to serve vague exposition that only goes barely explained by the end of 16

olivier and annabellas roles as antagonists feel more complete and thought out than the actual main 'villain' which is really disappointing, because any intrigue built by the conflict in Sanbreque is dashed when dion was simply wrong and olivier was ultima the whole time ooooooh

joshuas entire sideplot is relegated to following ultima similar to cloud but with none of the intrigue because we dont know Anything about ultima. hes only introduced to the plot as some vague concept joshua has an unexplained connection to (btw we still dk how/why joshua 'trapped' ultima in his heart/soul/whatever becos. none of it is elaborated on. i tried too i was hoping for an ff7og type hidden revelation if i did jotes side quests too but no....... i looked yall i tried i did

not to mention how joshua survivng kind of killed clives arc for me.. L3+R3 to accept the truth was kind of badass as fuck... too bad it doesnt matter and theres no truth for clive to accept joshua was never dead. clives arcs are perpetually meaningless. internal conflict about this power hes been given that could change the world for the better.. or worse and he could (and has) hurt/killed the ones he loves.. well doesnt matter joshua is alive and ifrit has caused no real harm to people who matter..

i remember talking to my irl, they were going off about fe3h about how the trailers built up political intrigue and expectation that was dashed when it all turned out to be villains behind the curtain manipulating everything with no foreshadowing and yeah... yeah

ultima was so poorly handled to me, nothing about his buildup felt coherent to me and all it did was serve to distract me from what i was genuinely enjoying (dominant political dramas) i really dislike it all.. god i wish there was more, theres a dlc coming out about leviathan, you might have honestly forgotten about leviathan because it was a single line of dialogue with no explanation build up or payoff. if you want to know why joshua namedropped leviathan and then moved on like it never existed pay square enix extra money and hopefully this wont be utter bullshit too lol.

[pocketbelt]

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Patch 6.5 (PS5)

The Endwalker patch cycle main story has been a neat little diversion but the way it comes together in this is remarkably fucking strong. The way all the different story threads come together and align to reinforce its core theme is expertly done, and 6.5's cutscenes especially use camera direction and control in cutscenes super well to imply subtle aspects that hearken back to seemingly one-off aspects all the way back to 6.1.

It also has a lot of what I wanted in part from Endwalker MSQ proper: actually making use of its direct visual and plot point lifts and references to Final Fantasy IV in cool and interesting ways, similar to how Shadowbringers played with the concepts of Final Fantasy III. There are still aspects there I think Endwalker fumbled the bag on and if anything, the way this patch cycle uses IV's concepts to different ends so fucking well displays that brilliantly.

It has some issues - there's a distinctly bastard return of the "Warrior of Light stands around like a fucking idiot while everyone does the actual stuff" problem in several of the pivotal cutscenes, in particular. Like, I get it; you have a wide variety of body types and a very wide array of classes with their own unique animations for similar actions, making the player do overly animated stuff believably is difficult, but after a point I think they're just going to have to try and engineer a solution to it. Either generic animations by role (melee DPS are the big problem here) or just take time during the Dawntrail patch cycle to come up with some that can be used, I dunno, but this sort of shit has to stop. It's actually kind of insane how differently the plot would go in places if the Warrior of Light didn't just stand around gawping like a fucking balloon in so many scenes - it's one of the core reasons I've long since turned on Heavensward's main story in particular when looking back.

It actually kind of undermined the weight of the 6.5 trial, which is a fucking cool trial (with a new killer remix, this patch cycle story has had so many 11/10 remixes/new takes on FFIV music) but due to the way you stand around like a tit before and after it while your party does everything, it feels like it was completely superfluous.

The final alliance raid is also pretty cool, it has really cool mechanics and effects and the final fight is really rad, but I think by the end I was tired of all the weightiness in this expansion. The AR story itself is ultimately very warm and well-meaning, it's quite sweet in a lot of ways, but it carries a lot of the lofty ideal preaching and between Endwalker MSQ, the patch MSQ ending and this, I'm good and ready for Dawntrail to be low-stakes fucking about.

I have some actual spoiler points over the jump, but in short, good shit but now I need you guys to chill out.

Re; Endwalker fumbling the bag with the usage of FFIV as a reference point, I still feel it's kind of insane that they went for basic bitch nihilism and not over-riding hatred as the source of the Final Days. I felt it was more thematically fitting to do so, between the constant casual racism of ARR and how hatred is fostered among the people of Eorzea because they don't work together or trust each other, how Teledji explicitly spun up hatred of Ala Mhigan refugees among Ul'dah's people and vice versa to further his own ends, how the ideologies and root of the Empire ultimately deal in hatred of non-Garleans and gods, etc; the same could be said of the Holy See of Ishgard and its legacy of hating the dragons and how the greed of the ancient Ishgardians driving them to kill Ratatoskr fomented the undying unyielding hatred of Niddhogg for them in Heavensward; Stormblood is entirely a lengthy fucking screed about all the ways imperialism is bad, how it works and divides and weakens people and core strands of that are it preying on hatred born of a nation's problems to sow discord in it and expose it to invasion and conquest. Fordola and especially Yotsuyu talk at length about the hatred they have for the people of their homelands because of the misery those people caused them, again born of hatred (even if Fordola's is really shittily done and very hard to empathise with at all) - the mid-fight grand narrative turn of the Tsukuyomi trial in 4.3 is quite literally Yotsuyu reaching deep down and trying to manifest her own hatred to fuel her ability to keep fighting! The distinct lack of Eorzea's racism and division is screechingly evident in the Crystarium and Amh Araeng in Shadowbringers and it's a core part of how they survived for 100 years at the very brink of the Light-borne apocalypse, and Emet-Selch is clearly worn down and lacks the full-throated venom for you and Hydaelyn that his compatriots show, he has none to will up at the end of it all and all that has transpired is rooted in the ancient tragedy that caused a rift, conflict and hatred to form among the ancient Eitheryians!

Long story short I have thought extensively about the expansions and how they connect together; it's deranged to me that we left-field pivot to some twee bird girl trying to kill everyone because she had a brain aneurysm and decided nihilism was cool because multiple other societies ended in unfortunate circumstance (the ocean planet ravaged by hell plague), unrestrained hatred (the planet that warred itself to death) or blinding stupidity (you cannot convince me the Ea or the golden robe people as presented are anything but cornball idiots). The overbearing thread of "the hatred we create is the root of all our woes" permeating damn near everything before it leads almost fucking flawlessly to Zemus/Zeromus as final ultimate antagonist - because, for the very little we learn of Zemus/Zeromus in FFIV, the one thing we do know is that he fucking hates the non-Lunarian people and advocates for their eradication by his people, who he sees as superior. Zeromus is Zemus' unyielding hatred taken form, it is literally just manifest hatred! It was a fucking lay-up and to me it felt like they just chucked it out the window for something much fucking weaker, which they also delivered really fucking badly right at the end (but the problems with the entirety of the Ultima Thule section are for another time).

To that end, while the usage of Zeromus in the patch cycle is neat, it also feels like a bit of a fumble because this aspect isn't utilised at all. Zeromus isn't a manifestation of hatred here, it's the gigantic Dark aether pool made by the death of the Thirteenth's Zodiark shard melded into a being driven by the ragged emotions and longings of a dragon who's been tortured for centuries. It's the flipside of the rest of the patch cycle making great use of FFIV concepts and characters, because it has different or different-ish takes on them all and Zeromus is again left wanting.

On the other hand, Golbez is used immaculately. Instead of a man mind-controlled into being evil, FFXIV Golbez is a man with good intentions manipulated to evil ends, and now driven to desperation to fix the unfathomable mistakes he has made. He's beautifully tragic and performed so fucking well, driven to his mad plan because he can't conceive of any other method than finding a way to bring death back to a world that is bereft of it. The nature of who the Golbez we meet is helps that further, as are the supremely clever allusions made in the 6.5 post-dungeon cutscenes. I know this is the spoiler section but I'm putting it in ROT13 anyway:

Qhenagr vf pyrneyl n ybbx-nyvxr bs Mrabf, vs abg qverpgyl gur Guvegrragu'f funeq/ersyrpgvba bs uvz (vs ur unf gubfr gbb, fbzr qverpgbe D&N fhttrfgrq ur qbrfa'g), naq Tbyorm vf uvf orfg sevraq naq vqby. Jr arire frr Tbyorm'f gehr snpr, orpnhfr gur bevtvany Tbyorm jnf lbhe Guvegrragu funeq/ersyrpgvba. Gur ehzvangvba ba Mrabf frrvat lbh nf uvf sevraq, naq vs lbh sryg gur fnzr be abg, va 6.1 jnf yrnqvat gb guvf. Na vqrn bs ubj guvatf pbhyq'ir orra, vs uvf cngu jnf qvssrerag. Nyfb, Qhenagr-nf-Tbyorm vf znavchyngrq vagb oevatvat nobhg gur Sybbq bs Qnexarff, whfg nf Neqoreg jnf znavchyngrq vagb oevatvat nobhg gur Sybbq bs Yvtug, znxvat sbe fbzr avpr shegure cnenyyryf orgjrra gur Svefg naq gur Guvegrragu. Va bar jbeyq vg jnf lbh, va nabgure vg jnf uvz.

Durante wielding a greatsword and Dark magic, and explicitly being a Dark Knight in the flashbacks but not being the one to become a Paladin is also a really nice spin that works better for XIV. After all, Darkness is not evil and Light is not good here, and Golbez is able to use his Dark power for good in the end. On the flipside, Zero being freed from being a Reaper, becoming the Paladin she originally was as she learns to trust and takes Light into herself with the help of others (and not after ritually confronting her inner Darkness, as Cecil did in FFIV) as she learned to trust, that's a real fucking good turn on the notion of a "dark" class becoming a Paladin. The Dark Knight and the Paladin learn to trust each other and work together to do better by the world, and if the Paladin had been able to trust people originally and joined the Dark Knight back then, perhaps it could have all been avoided. But all one can do is keep going forward, making amends for their sins and errors. It's real fucking good, it's a good way of using IV's key moments and concepts in different ways better suited to XIV instead of blindly copying them (which, to be fair, XIV doesn't really blindly copy things in that fashion anyway).

It all reinforces the recurring theme of trust, of trust among people in each other being the way forward and for the good of all. That and the two striving to rebuild the Thirteenth, just as the Garleans must rebuild Garlemald and the First must rebuild itself, all in the wake of the Ascians and their machinations, it all lines up really well and makes for a good follow-up to the vanquishing of the Final Days. The worlds are healing in their own ways, and they don't need to be reunited or abandoned.

I was kind of hoping we'd still be packing the Lightwardens' light in our back pocket to blast Zeromus with or blow into the Thirteenth, but it seems we did indeed blast it all into Emet-Selch instead. Same effect but my preference would have us being more active, a thing they're a bit dodgy about doing. They don't want you to do everything, of course, as it makes the rest of the cast seem incompetent or pointless, but at the same time they keep making us seem a bit irrelevant at times. Zero and Golbez handle Zeromus so quickly after the trial that it makes the trial seem like it didn't matter or need to happen. They don't mention Zeromus being any weaker from you beating it, and hell it doesn't seem any weaker either.

Drawing Light from the frozen Flood on the First into the Thirteenth, and passing Zeromus' crystal to the First for Ryne, Gaia and Lou Beq to potentially draw massive quantities of Darkness from to heal the First are real nice caps. They kind of stumbled over the Unulkalhai/Cyvette "we're going to research the Thirteenth and see what we can do" plot thread locked behind beating all of Shadowbringers' role quests, but by necessity they kind of had to; they can hardly mandate that be done by all players, funny as that would be to do (you'd have to do the HW Extreme Trials, too, for Unulkalhai first but those are easily bullshitted with unsynced Lv80 parties/Lv90 solos). Gaia's scenes are optional and easily worked around, at least, but seeing her in main story was a real treat. It's always delightful to see the side content acknowledged as being real, and as ever, it's Shadowbringers stuff that does it best. They did add extra dialogue for those two if you've done that stuff, at least, which was a nice treat, even if it was obviously just paving over "hey why didn't these two get to meet Zero or take part in this at all".

I get deep into my thoughts and feelings about XIV a lot, but yeah, I really could do with some Alexander raid series-tier tone and style next time. Enough loft, enough warm and grand resolutions about peace and trust and love. We need idiot goblins blasting metal over super-robot fights or rapping over their time-bending divine robot summoning himself inside himself to help himself cave our heads in, or HW alliance raid style demons being dicks for the sake of it. Diabolos is still out there, I'm fairly sure he survived the Cyber Diabolos machina in Bozja!

Feeling that way is why I really front that it would be funnier if the Scions (or ex-Scions, now) didn't come with you to the New World at first. With all being said and done, everyone goes to the four winds to do what they want and will, and you stumble onto a boat to a new place like a lost child and no-one knows where you go. So they'd be frantically hunting your trail because they need you or just miss you and got worried, while you're having fun with new friends in the New World. The people there like this odd stranger who only nods at them, they helped with herding sheep and doing menial chores and are fun to watch eat new foods, and they just killed god what the fuck do you mean they killed god? That can happen? How? What do we do about this

I just think it'd be way funnier and lighter, and absence (sort of) would make us fonder of the crew we're so fond of as is. You'd bypass the touchy "city of gold" colonial explorer shite they're teetering on stumbling into, as well, and you'd be able to make and flesh out a delightful New World cast too with more focus and room.

[abimee]

i realized one of my twitter mutuals was still in heavensward while i was posting ew spoilers so i thought ''oh shit i should probably cool it until i know my followers here got to ew'' but then i think about how everything ive ever posted has not been anywhere near canon. im positive my not xiv followers cant list a single canon thing ive told them because ive been lying to them for 2 years now and i wipe the sweat off my brow

[druidquest]

been thinking about switching to a hrothgar when the girls get added next expac but at the same time i dont wanna lose my lizard ive had my au ra girl since heavensward man ive been playing this little gecko lesbian for eight+ years

[ryuuseishi]

Ysayle Survive AU (and her two new friends)

[biracialalistair]

the critically acclaimed mmorpg final fantasy xiv that has a free trial up to level 60 with unlimited playtime and includes the entirety of a realm reborn and the award-winning first expansion heavensward for the blorbo ask?

i have been WAITING for someone to send this one

blorbo: aymericccccc if it wasnt obvious from the url change like he's literally. thats blorbo from my games. thats my husband my self-projection my everything (a friend said hes also a virgo and im so mad about it but i cant argue)

scrunkly: FORDOLA. FORDOLA...... 1. she is DEFINITELY so shaped i love looking at her because even w default models they managed to make her look so. stocky. wolflike. and 2. all she ever did was pick a winning side to survive and can anyone blame her for that truly

scrimblo bimblo: hien because stormblood is glossed over as a whole but the doma story arc means so much to me and hien especially being part of this generation that has never known anything but the occupation, both confronting this hard truth that complacency may be what keeps his people alive, and then finding the strength to rise up from the ruins of a failed rebellion..... love him

glup shitto: this game is so fucking long that i have a million glup shittos but i think the one that embodies the spirit of the glup shitto the most is landenel. remember landenel? he's the hero that retired to a post in camp tranquil and is bored out of his mind but reliving his glory days vicariously through you. you can also play cards with him

poor little meow meow: magnai... listen i have a lot of words about magnai that ive shared loudly and often but it boils down to this guy raised in a culture with such a fucking ROMANTIC mythos but incredibly toxic masculinity and he's the unfortunate product of these conflicting forces

horse plinko: zenos. he knows what he did.

eeby deeby: im sorry to those who like her but yotsuyu. she's actually in my tumblr blacklist bc she literally elicits a physical stress response from me. i won't subject you to the rant i have locked and loaded about how her character and story perpetuate a revisionist history of japan and their occupation of other countries in the mid century but allow me to at least say. the portrayal of how she tortures the people of doma for sport, not a good look and actually a very real callback to atrocities commited under japanese occupation.

[fisherrprince]

as far as ffxiv goes, while ARR is definitely the slowest expansion, it sets up a lot of things that get huge payoffs later in the story. is it fetch questy? yes. can it be a bit of a slog to get through the earlier quests? also yes. do I believe the payoff for the story is worth it? absolutely. there's a reason that some of the most hard hitting emotional moments, even to this day, are in ARR and the patch quests before Heavensward. and even with players who struggle a bit more with mechanics in the fights, parties are almost always willing to help teach, and the casual MSQ content doesn't have too high of a difficulty bar. all of the harder raids are totally optional. But this game isn't for everyone, and that's okay! with how many streamers have moved over to it recently, there's sure to be someone's PoV who you'd enjoy watching. I just enjoy getting to share the game that's brought me so much joy for the last two years with new people :] anyways hello hello I hope your day is good and I am so so sorry if I've put untagged spoilers on your dash. sometimes I am fool

hrrrrghhh… grips my broken hands……..

ive been watching snapcube stream ffxiv, even though I do not understand a single thing that’s happening! Maybe I’ll check jocat out? And yeah, this is another reason I’m indecisive on buying a story skip to get to the “good kush”, is that my attitude towards “slow buildup where they were figuring things out that isn’t as famously good but that will pay off later” is I HAVE TO SEE IT. I have to see!!!! You — you are khux people you know what I’m talking about. non-daybreak story quests are not as fun but can you imagine not doing them..? Getting those chirithy lines… Me running around in the forest area for twenty minutes stabbing ladybugs with my big fork

hgh… extremely my thing u say… emotional payoff… u say……… help

also SKDBDK DONT WORRY I understand nothing and I haven’t had spoilers blacklisted or anything for. ever I think seeing little spoilery comics peaks my interest more than “it’s good” I wanna see that one catboy. G’raha? that catboy.