#there's probably something to be said in here about what happens in ultima thule

[anneapocalypse]

I have joked before that Stormblood feels like the writers thought they maybe went too hard on Major Character Death™️in Heavensward and so almost nobody gets to die. But looking back over the arc of the Scions as a whole, I think Stormblood through Endwalker are really the Scions learning (if slowly) that Heroic Sacrifice is not always the answer, and also growing closer to one another as people as a result. Especially for those of us who didn't play 1.0, I think it's so easy to forget sometimes that these characters just survived an apocalypse--and lost the guy who was the glue holding them all together. I think a lot of what feels like the Scions being cavalier with their comrade's life in ARR is the fact that they are all waiting, consciously or unconsciously, for their own Louisoix Moment, and they're so deep in that mindset that they probably don't even realize how it feels to an outsider, that understanding that they're all ready to die. Because when that moment does come, they all take it. Moenbryda takes it, Minfilia takes it, Papalymo takes it... and the rest are left to pick up the pieces.

And what do they do with those pieces? After Moenbryda's death Urianger goes on a very long arc where he starts mired in isolation and self-flagellation, but ultimately comes to see that turning to his friends for help is better than suffering alone. Alphinaud faces down the arrogance that made him so easy to manipulate and becomes better at working with others and not over and around them. Alisaie comes to terms with her grandfather's death and pushes those around her to see alternatives to sacrifice. Lyse decides to stop hiding, to live as herself, and to fight for what she believes in, ultimately becoming a leader in her newly-freed homeland. Thancred learns to better respect the agency of the people he loves while still acting as a protector. Y'shtola begins--slowly, and haltingly, but she does begin--to share her struggles with her friends instead of keeping everything to herself. G'raha, after years of secrecy and preparing to sacrifice himself, finds himself given a second chance and a new life to share with the people he loves. Estinien finds deeply meaningful friendships with people he would have once considered his enemy, and lets go of a life of solitude in favor of joining the Scions.

There's a reason the Scions don't really feel like a family in ARR. There's a reason that, to me, they do feel like one by Endwalker. Sometimes media will try to force a found family dynamic between a group of characters who don't even necessarily like each other very much; FFXIV lets the cracks in the Scions show early and then shatters them, then brings them back together in a long journey of reforging those bonds and making them stronger than they ever were.

[thelongestway]

Dawn: Trailed

Now that the spoiler embargo is gone, well...

This is probably my favorite expansion. On par with, if not better than, HW (My personal rating otherwise goes HW>ShB>Ew=Sb=Arr). I went through it without reading anything about others' experiences, and you can imagine my surprise about the incredibly mixed reception!

I was even more surprised, because I was going in very burnt out on FFXIV, and had really been expecting to go in and say "eh, this was ok, sure, but nothing special."

Instead, I got exactly what I wanted or, dare I say it, even needed. That is to say, this:

So this review is going to be reflecting over the type of story this is and what made it so appealing to me specifically.

Tons of spoilers below the cut!

What I thoroughly enjoyed about Dawntrail:

the "not my circus, not my monkeys" vibe

the worldbuilding

the pacing

And I think these things are related. But let's start with the pacing.

My usual way of playing is "do story, do available sidequests as they pop up, a couple of fates along the road, etc". I usually wind up with a class fully leveled and a class half-leveled by the end of the story. My WoL is very thorough and meticulous, and a firm believer in "get the lay of the land" first.

In most previous expansions, that meant there were spots where I went stir-crazy, because something about that flow didn't click; there were many places I was bored but also did not want to skip things, because while it felt bad to do them immediately, it would feel even more out of place to do them later. To wit: Moogles HW (even though I loved the crafter quests later), Ruby Sea SB, Twine etc ShB, Ultima Thule EW (yes, not Labyrinthos part 2 - sorry my friends, I love insane academics, while Ultima Thule really, really did not hit for me).

This was not the case in DT. There wasn't a single moment I felt truly bored. And specifically I enjoyed the vibe that you can come and go at any moment - the fact that the succession isn't really your problem helps with this a lot. This is why the amount of Wuk Lamat didn't particularly bother me - my WoL just went "oh, fantastic, any fallout is your problem, not mine - I'm just here to see the sights and talk to people". He got to have a good night's sleep without being interrupted, for gods' sake - unheard of!

On a player level, this worked wonderfully, because I hate it when writers try to raise the stakes by making it personal. Usually, I have a very visceral reaction to that, which is primarily "you do NOT get to decide what makes it personal for me", and I can count the number of times that kind of bait worked for me on one hand. In FFXIV specifically, Haurchefant and Ysayle in one expansion - and never again (although should anything happen to the twins, yeah, that'll work). Having another character take the brunt of "this has to be personal For Them" is really one of my favorite vibes. That said, I'm very much a worldbuilding-over-story girlie. Give me a world to muck around in, and I'm happy. And if I don't feel punished for taking my time, this becomes even better - I detest time-based long-term gameplay, I have enough of that IRL. Which means that for me, the vibe of this whole expansion was "excellent, I've got an excuse to be here - oh, we're moving on? You go on, I'll catch up". The last time I felt like this was really in HW, while the resolution to the Monetarist plot was brewing in the background. "Yeah, we can't really go back to our three home states for long. Great - let's explore the floating islands and see what the deal with the Dragonsong war is. We've got nothing but time." In both expansions, giving me time to fool around let me develop a personal connection - not to the characters, to the space. And by the time the plot picks up, I am hooked.

So aside from being my favorite type of worldbuilding, the feeling that "the plot is on pause and I have time to breathe" is unironically one of my favorite things in games, and what lets me feel like I've been relaxing while playing a game. And, well, I really needed a vacation from IRL bullshit, and I got just that.

It was one heck of a surprise for me to see that's not the case for most other players. To showcase this, I actually quite enjoyed one of the most controversial storytelling moments - which was "you've found the City of Gold! ...Now before you go in there, the current ruler needs to inform their successor about the bullshit going on down there, and you're not invited". My WoL's reaction was an amused "yeah, sure, I'm not in a rush - we'll get there (not that you can stop me from poking my nose in). Now, what else did you say was here? Xak Turaal?"I know a lot of other players got thrown out of the illusion of verisimilitude here; for a lot of people, the pacing here felt like a jarring stop. For me, though, it felt like breathing space; like a promise - there's no rush, we'll get there. Take your time, relax. It was like the game said "yeah, I see the load you carry normally. You don't have to for a few hours". And that was great.

It was the same with Wuk Lamat. The big cat wants all the bullshit I hate? She can have it, and my gratitude with it! The only time my WoL felt irked with her was the "invitation to be part of her government" - but even that moment was basically fixed immediately by the WoL's reaction! Which is: you stare at Wuk Lamat silently - silently even for the WoL, no gestures or implied responses, she sheepishly goes "you don't have to answer now... also I got you that pass to Xak Tural I promised?.." Only then do you smile. And you have the option of basically turning around after that and walking directly into Xak Turaal without talking to anyone except Erenville, which I found appropriate and more than a little hilarious. Finally, much later, Wuk Lamat even goes "ok, yeah, I get it now, the invitation was kinda stupid, sorry" - which is a big Point for her in my WoL's eyes.

And you get to just walk away! And there are no problems arising from that! And you walk into Shaaloani, doubling down on the "nope. I am On Vacation. Nothing but the wind and the vibes", and it was exactly what I wanted and needed. And then, after Shaaloani, once I've thoroughly relaxed, the plot picks up! I've had my rest, and now I get to do shit! 10/10 hit in the personal preferences, no notes.

All of this would've been enough to bring DT on par with HW and above ShB (which had the "new world exploration" down pat, but was also much more inconsistent in its pacing for me). But what brings it really... Above HW for me was the last zone. Because that zone hit stuff I'd been needing to have a good cry about, and I spent 8 hours doing just that: reading through and sobbing.

Now, this was a very personal hit in the themes. I mean, it was mostly coincidence that it hit that hard. But it was what I needed.

Dawntrail is an expansion that has two main themes: vacation (break, pause, freedom) and death. Death, while always present as an FFXIV theme, here is discussed specifically in the aspect of "leaving behind stuff for others to take care of". These two themes are bundled in extremely neatly, you keep going back and forth between them, and they reach a crescendo in the last zone, which is a memorial disguised as an amusement park; a memorial whose paperclip-optimizer managing AI was about to try and kill everyone it could reach in order to keep that memorial's lights on. So you walk into a deteriorating attempt to make the "between-space" of vacation last forever, and then you turn that vacation into death, and that comes as a relief.

I won't go into the IRL bullshit that made me cry over this. But the mix of "you can't capture happiness in a gilded cage" and also "you cannot exist in that liminal space where you temporarily leave your burdens - you shouldn't try to actually live there", and finally "someday you will have to leave your burdens to someone else, and you will never solve everything forever" - yeah, I needed that. I needed a good ghost story right now, and I didn't know I did. So the last zone hit insanely hard, and I loved it.

And it hit all the harder because the focus wasn't on me. For contrast, Ultima Thule was my least favorite zone of EW. It was a total, absolute miss for me - the exact kind of "the writers are trying to make it personal" that I hate. I think I have the exact feeling about Ultima Thule that most people have about Dawntrail: if the plot had been moved a few steps to the side, I would've enjoyed it - say, have the Scions lean into "we're building a bridge, and whoever gets to the end will have to handle the rest. WoL, though - you're gonna have to be the last one to go, we need you to bring us back. Let's walk into this with our eyes open" rather than into the "sacrifice" aesthetic. But they didn't, and it didn't hit for me. I felt sort of numb and irritated throughout.

Meanwhile, Living Memory - and its focus on a bunch of NPCs I didn't know, and then Krile, and then Erenville and Cahciua - let me experience what I needed to experience without also feeling like the writers are dragging the requisite emotion out of me with pliers. For once, playing through the story as a Black mage was amazing - I was very much "okay, time to put on my thaumaturge ritual robes and hold a funeral". It was a somber feeling, but also it felt like it should.

And then you get a multidimensional key out of it! And you end 7.0 alone, looking at a map with the key in your posession, and you can see the gears turning in your WoL's head as they plan... That's my personal perfect ending.

As a result, this expansion made me reflect very heavily on my own personal preferences on pacing and plot, and how the niche that I inhabit is probably smaller than I thought. Things that are absolute dealbreakers for other people are barely blips on my radar; while things that are absolutely monumental to me often go unnoticed. Good stuff to know for a writer - and I'm very grateful for getting a story that was written so close to what I like.

[toadeyes-miqote]

Gnirebmemer si gnipeews

Yrome gnivil gnitsegid saw I elihw em gnirehtob saw taht yromem tuoba gniht rehto tahT. Aloths'y tuoba tseuqedis ayotam a saw drawsnevaeh 95lvl raluger dne ni kcab raf

Is you done side quest (The Magic Word) before I go on?

Matoya removed her happy memories of with Y'shtola after they had a very bad fight and stored it off site.

In her case her memories are retrievable and I don't know how much it affect the tone of their relationship (constant snippy and semi-antagonistic?) thereafter. Maybe she would or maybe she won't retrieve it before she pass on. who knows.

It just had me thinking that Matoya did the same thing, but she retains access to it to come back and deal with it in time if she wish to. Maybe she's waiting for insight, mindset or something. who knows. Maybe she doesn't want to deal with it and left it as is.

Whether or not they have any new decently happy memories made thereafter is subjective to crankiness levels.

There may or may not be other Sharlayans who known them and be like - "There goes Matoya and her Miq'tten. Just the other day such and such a fine thing happen and etc and etc and gosh that was a funny learning experience for them." Other people probably remember something of them and still would when Matoya pass away.

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Kinda like on the First where Exarch is technically gone. and some folks were writing books and making minions of him.

People processing his departure in their way

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Headcannon territory ahead

Even in DRK the process took Post EW and 20-30 lvls to feel like things sunk in for Hylnyan where her guilt about Haurchefant was concern.

And then I may finally end up unlocking Pictomancer as a response to BRD-DRK synching up and surviving Living Memory. Draw stuff in honour of those who were lost. An in-lore way for Hylnyan to process things and get a bit of therapy.

The process of dealing with lost is dependent of time one takes. At least they know who is gone and there might be other people who know them to talk to.

In Amaurot's case Hylnyan is working with Claudien and the Studium's Faculty of Anthropology and some help from The Watcher and Unukalhai and very interestingly and carefully with Hegemony and some of the Elpis folks.

They are basing it on Erich's life since he's in an interesting position as Lahabrea's son and Pandamonium warden to see things from a certain angle. and talk about the three Unsundered and the society there probably and leaving out who Azem and Erich are in the here and now.

Emet wants Hylnyan to remember them. He never said how And he should know that when she should pass, who else is to remember if no one notes down the legacy for others to access.

And then there's Ultima Thule of which doing the later part of it into Dawntrail was a heck of an experience when the Omicron society contrast to Living Memory kicks in.

I am still not sure how dead Ultima Thule is. Or how different Ultima Thule is from Living Memory I'll get back to digesting this dynamis vs holgraqphic memory projection thing (more reasons why I don't let Hylnyan log out in both places. Technically dead worlds / spirit world thing - don't go where her friends on the Source and the First can't follow)

What made Solution 9 and Living Memory seem horrible was the lack of access to the memories (How restricted is access to Living Memeory over time and how are people to even remember why its even there) and forceful erasure that left holes in not just one's lives but the people who interreacted with that person.

So many intriguing questions and to see where post patch goes.

[theworldwalkerswols]

Canon Divergence, Dynamis, and Ultima Thule

Vali ☀️ Magnai's Little Moon @/dillydallyvali Is there any canon lore that you absolutely reject for your WoL/OC? Do you have any head canon that fixes what you've rejected? 🤔 #wolqotd #wolquestion

I think everyone here probably knows that I'm a Heavensward death denier - for both Haurche and Ysayle!! I Absolutely Reject Ysayle getting fridged!! - but I've been thinking about it more recently, and the one that really stands out is toward the end of Endwalker.

I originally filled out the WoLqotd that was about 'what did your character say before they activated the teleporter in Ultima Thule and faced the Endsinger?' But that's just the thing. Kyler wouldn't have activated it.

A huge part of his story is learning to defend himself just as staunchly as he defends those he loves. He asks Haurche to do it, to not throw himself into harm's way recklessly, and Haurche (and others! including Alphinaud!) turns it right back onto him - "You cannot ask me to do this thing when you, time and again, ignore your wounds in favor of pressing on." It's a shock to hear that. Kyler knows that he does this, in a sort of subconscious way, but he'd never been called out for it openly before.

In WoL!Kyler's case, he has always had an insanely high pain tolerance without knowing why. Add to that the effect of adrenaline and most times he literally does not notice when he's hurt.

Having Haurchefant call him out on it directly makes him stop and think about his past behaviors and experiences. And he agrees to try. He and Haurche both agree to practice choosing actions that go against their instincts and their natures, in the name of keeping each other safe and having each other as long as possible. So by Endwalker, by the end of Ultima Thule, Kyler has learned not only how to protect himself better, but how to rely on others. So he wouldn't press that button.

Just as the Scions fought Hydaelyn together, they would fight the Endsinger together. The moment in which they all pray stays, of course, it's key - but they're all there, in the end.

Which brings us to the Zenos fight. In order for that to play out, I sincerely think that it's Zenos' desire for one last battle, the ultimate battle, that makes it happen the way it does.

Kyler's teleporter activates and falls from his clothes, setting off the others, simply because of Zenos' desire to have him alone, with no interference. I think it's also very likely that Zenos' desire for his final battle, to burn the candle of his life so bright it goes out, affects the behavior of the WoL. (This could certainly be said of those who felt forced into the fight, or that the fight was out of character for their WoL, like @/liliasoftfoot, who has bemoaned multiple times that in dialogue Zenos literally says 'you can walk away from me' but the game doesn't let you do it.)

Zenos' powerful desire for the Ultimate Battle, where both of them are at the peak of their abilities, his desire for the battle that would make him feel something and finally be at peace is what made it come to pass. And I think it's likely that the combination of Zenos wanting to see the WoL at their peak combined with the WoL's desire to survive that gives them/the player the Spark of Hope buff.

But I also certainly think it's Zenos' ideas of what the perfect battle is that makes them evenly matched, that sees them both collapsed and close to death at the end.

And it's the WoL's desire to live, combined with the Scions' desperate prayers to recover them in safety, that makes that teleporter manifest again right before going off, spiriting the WoL back to the Ragnarok in the nick of time.

I also wrote it into my fic that WoL was only successfully healed on the Ragnarok bc of the fact that they were in a dynamis-based environment: even the Scions who cannot heal contributed to bringing the WoL back from the brink by the strength of their desire for them to live.

So with all THAT <hand waving @ above> being the headcanon, Kyler arrives back on the ship and the Scions are still relieved and emotional, but there's no cause for them to be angry with him, because he never sent them away in the first place.

This is so long but all this stuff has been rattling around in my brain for weeks. I really want to NG+ Kyler after I've gotten him to omni-90 (I have a long ways to go...) and I'm sure I'll find other places his canon diverges when I do.