#post-heavensward

[monstermonger]

Dragonsong War

[spicy-batman]

You better promise that Mister! Or you can kiss that Knighthood goodbye and be (my) a Stay at Home House-Wife!

[varethane]

Regarding Thancred's eyepatch in the post-Heavensward patches, here's my personal theory....

XIVbsky | swag

[equinoxbloom]

I left my heart in Ishgard ~

My dearest friend, in whom I trust without hesitation, without doubt─ Come what may, I know you will strive on.

-Haurchefant Greystone

It's what I am, and I'm not ashamed of it.

-Hilda Ware

We whom gods and men have forsaken shall be the instruments of our own deliverance.

-Ysayle Dangoulain

No matter how deep our grief, we will rise again.

-Estinien Varlineau

If it is folly to hope, I am content to die a fool.

-Aymeric de Borel

[manafonts]

[howdygravytrain]

so technically evy would've been the one to go through the DRK questline but i thought it'd be funny having aymeric meet fray so here we r LMAO

[demonio-fleurs]

i bring a sort of "'estinien is stinky' jokes are tired and old and unfunny and ignore the important symbolism of his armor being stained in nidhogg's blood" vibe to the nidhogg trial that other players don't really like

[dawntrailing]

FINAL FANTASY XIV (2010-2024)

[janzoo]

Do you ever just find yourself overcome with a lot of Feelings about a character that fandom often uses as a punching bag?

So anyway, Emmanellain de Fortemps.

I think about him a lot more than I let on around here. Yes he's a bit of a ponce and a dandy and the like, but he has a good heart. He saved Honoroit from indentured servitude. (Although I thought they originally met when he paid Honoroit to carry his bags then took him in from there? Did the lore change?) Either way, he personally taught Honoroit to read and write. He personally taught Honoroit to read and write. I'm not over that. Emmanellain didn't have to go out of his way to invest personal time and resources into teaching Honoroit, but he did. I'm not over that!! I refuse to believe that doing so came from anywhere else but a place of sincere compassion!

And speaking of sincerity, I feel like that's the source of some of his issues. Having grown up in a broken home and being the apology child and clearly having some anxiety issues, I think he struggles to be sincere. He has to be the good second son, and the goofball who diffuses negative situations, and an Ishgardian noble which no doubt comes with its own entire category of repression. All his running away from responsibilities and passing the buck and etc. etc. strikes me as someone with severe anxiety that manifests in avoidance habits which just hits way too close to home for me. But. But! He's learning how to face his anxiety! Don't you remember how inspired he was after the grand melee??!! "We need only show them the way." He wants to help people and guide Ishgard into that bright future he's finally able to glimpse himself!! He's trying to be sincere! He's trying to be true to that good heart of his! His love and curiosity for the world around him is growing, and helping him grow in turn! Emmanellain will probably always be a ponce, but he'll also always be generous and fun-loving and considerate!

EMMANELLAIN DE FORTEMPS

[ahollowgrave]

Febhyurary 2025 | Day 8: Crystal

You didn't expect it to ache in this way.

[azems-familiar]

final fantasy xiv: heavensward patches 3.1-3.3

[tritoch]

in retrospect the whole estinien/gaius teamup is one of the funniest and most classically fanservice-y things FFXIV has done so far

your DARTH VADER/GRAHF-CODED ORIGINAL MAIN VILLAIN and YOUR RIVAL TURNED TEAMMATE TURNED POSSESSED ENEMY TURNED COMRADE-IN-ARMS, two of the only warriors alive who are even sort of your equal on the battlefield, MEET UP ON A TOP-SECRET MISSION, where they face off in a TWO VERSUS ONE FIGHT with MULTIPLE CAMERA ANGLES AND NON-STOCK ANIMATION against YOUR LATEST RIVAL, RETURNED FROM THE DEAD TO HUNT YOU ONCE MORE. there are SICK TEAMUP MOVES.

and then they fight a giant top-secret prototype bio-organic mech.

this is like the non-canon anime OVA with needlessly nice animation to our mainline shonen storyline, except it's 100% in-story. it's also not not the opening to ff7. i have never been more catered to in this game, and they let you straight up just fight phantom train at one point. no one ever mentions it again later.

[picaroroboto]

one of my favorite WoL Moments is still this dialogue choice in Heavensward:

Context is that during the HW roadtrip, the party gets caught in this Catch-22 where the dragons won't let us pass through unless we get the Gnath to stop bugging (lol) them, but the Gnath have summoned Ravana. It seems obvious that the WoL needs to kill Ravana in order for anything to progress, but Alphinaud asks to make sure they're willing first.

There's a lot you can dig up in this seemingly simple interaction - first, Alphinaud's side of things: during late-ARR and it's post-patches, there's a lot of evidence to be found that shows he treats the WoL like a bodyguard, like a weapon, taking their strength for granted for his political ends while giving little, if any, thought to their own thoughts and feelings. It's not outright malicious manipulation, just a sort of blindness. Since the betrayal at the banquet he's been humbled, and grown closer to the WoL thanks to their continued support of him despite the fact that his vanity caused the disaster. Him asking the WoL is they're okay with fighting Ravana, even though it's a given that they have to, can be seen as him not wanting to repeat the same pattern of using them.

For the WoL, the "choice" seems obvious - kill the Primal. Their first Primal battle, Ifrit, was a fight for survival brought on by a twist of fate. Every one since then has been an active pursuit by choice - if you can even call it a choice when they're the only one who can do it and many people would die if they didn't. By HW they're already firmly locked in to their role of being the guy who kills Primals, and whether they like it or not they continue to choose to fight. By choosing the upper line here they confirm that, while also giving some cool and heroic bravado to reassure Alphinaud. But notably it's just to say that they don't fear their duty. They may hate it, regret the choices that lead them here, all manner of things, but they are not afraid of fighting Primals.

Or they could simply say nothing. Giving silence also recognizes that their choice doesn't really matter and they're going to have to fight anyways. When it comes to silent protagonist-type characters who have few dialogue options, every option they're given has all the more weight. There are cases where choosing to say three ellipses "..." says a thousand things more than not being given a dialogue choice at all, and this is one of them. It's as if the two choices here are actually "Be the Hero" or "Be the Hero (not happy about it)".

[nekhcore]

so. about that patch 3.4,

[manafonts]

[anneapocalypse]

That moment when Alisaie was like, "If Urianger really has betrayed us, I should be the one to kill him."