#this weapon kills dragons

[sleepyeye17]

This Machine Kills Dragons

Eddie and Max are friends. Lumax. Eddie is alive, and is a big brother figure. Max is blind. 

Words: 1,517

Eddie and Lucas walked back from the store, carrying bags of groceries for themselves and for Max’s mom. Max had been awake for about a month now, but her mom was as depressed as ever. Hopper was talking about taking her to the local AA meetings.

Lucas took out his earplugs as they left the busy main boulevard.

“How’s your tinnitus?” Eddie asked. Lucas had been struggling with ringing in his ears since the fight with Jason.

“It’s getting better,” Lucas said. “I have a fan going at night, which helps, and I wear earplugs if I know I’ll be somewhere loud, like the grocery store or the main street. The doctors are saying it will mostly go away with time.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

“Me too. It would suck if I was deaf and Max was blind. We’d have to figure out something new.”

“You guys could make it work. You could do morse code with tapping. That would be awesome.”

“Yeah. Or like, shaping letters on her hand. I could do that.”

“How’s it going with you and Max right now anyways?” Eddie asked. "You've been quiet about her lately. Which is unusual."

Lucas shrugged.

“I dunno. I still love her, but...”

Lucas kicked a rock. Eddie grimaced and hissed between his teeth.

“Don’t let her hear that tone. That sounds bad.”

“I know. It is bad. It wouldn’t be so bad if she would just talk to me. But there’s not much to talk about. She’s just in bed all day. So I go and I read to her, or I tell her about my day, but I want to hear about her . And right now, there’s not much for her to tell me. She says she isn’t bored, she’s just tired. But I don’t know.”

Eddie thought about this.

“You know, there was a point when I was a kid, when I stopped talking.”

“ You ?”

“I know, I know, now I never shut the fuck up. But this was a long time ago. I was little.”

“Okay.”

“That’s when my mom got me my first guitar. I was probably around ten. Things were bad at home. We had just moved to Hawkins. By playing guitar, I was able to, you know. Express things.”

“But Max doesn’t play guitar.”

Eddie grinned.

“Not yet.”

Max could feel the sun hot on her face. She wanted to call a nurse to close the curtains, but it was too much work. Everything was too much work. Pressing the button was too much work. Talking was too much work.

Her legs were still in casts, but her arms were in removable splints and slings. She’d thought that would make her feel better, but what could she do with her arms anyways? Draw? She was blind. All she could do now was press play on the Walkman, and she didn’t like the feeling of the headphones on her ears, cutting her off from her most valuable sense. Sometimes she did play her music out loud, but usually that was also just too much work.

There was a tap at the door, and all of Max's senses sprung into high alert. She bolted upright like a Jack-in-the-box.

“Hey, it’s cool, it’s just Eddie.”

She relaxed into wariness.

“Hi Eddie.”

Her voice was still hoarse from Vecna's chokehold.

“You hot? It feels hot in here.”

“Yeah.”

She heard the curtains being pulled and she was immediately more comfortable.

“I brought you something,” Eddie said. Max liked that Eddie never asked how she was feeling. He knew how she was feeling. Eddie had been released from the lab soon after she’d woken up from her coma, but he still came in once a week for his checkups, and he always stopped by to visit her when he did.

There was a hollow thunk, and Max jumped at the unexpected noise.

“Sorry,” Eddie said. “It’s a guitar. I brought you a guitar.”

Max leaned forward, curious.

“They let you bring Sweetheart into the hospital?”

Eddie chuckled.

“No. Besides, Sweetheart isn’t the kind of girl you learn on. This is an acoustic. It was my first, and I think it’s more your size.”

“I’m not that small,” Max argued.

“I know. I just have crazy noodle arms.”

Max smiled.

“Lucas told me that you get bored,” Eddie said. Max looked confused.

“He told you that? I didn’t tell him that. I don’t get bored.”

“Really? I used to get bored when I was recovering. I was just sitting here all day.”

“I don’t get bored. There’s stuff for me to do. They have someone teaching me braille. And physical therapy.”

“Lucas didn’t tell me about the braille.”

“No. I don’t really talk to him about that stuff.”

“Why not?”

“Because I haven’t actually been able to do anything. I still can’t tell an A from a K in braille, and all I do in physical therapy is bend my arms and lift quarter pound weights. I don’t have anything to say to him. I don’t do anything. What can I do? I get frustrated, because I want to tell him things, and, I dunno, entertain him, or whatever. He comes here all the time, and I just have nothing to say.”

“Well, after today you won’t have to say anything. Because you can play guitar instead.”

Max nodded.

“I’d like that.”

“How are your arms today?”

“Good. I can take off my splints.”

“You sure? We can start with just listening.”

Eddie had already talked to the physical therapist, who had approved short guitar lessons. Max was actually supposed to remove her splints more often than she did, and the PT was hoping that learning guitar might help her stay motivated in her stretching. But Eddie knew that Max would never agree to something just because it was good for her.

“I can do it.” She pulled the velcro splints off her arms. She was getting good at that.

“You ready?” he asked. “Can I put her in your lap?”

Max nodded, and she felt something large and cool bumping her thigh. She reached out, her hands running over the smooth curve of the wood. It was large, and her hands painted its shape as they traveled.

“Can I sit on your bed to show you?” Eddie asked.

“Okay.”

The bed dipped and Max scooted over to make room for him. Leather pressed against her arm.

“My mom gave me this guitar,” Eddie said. “She taught me how to play. It has words painted on it. Can you feel them?”

Max ran her fingers over the wood, and felt the texture change of thick dry paint.

“What does it say?”

“It says ‘this machine kills dragons.’”

“What does that mean?”

“In the 40s, the musician Woody Guthrie had ‘this machine kills fascists’ painted on his guitar. My mom was a big fan of his. And she liked fairytales. She couldn’t read or write very well, but she copied the words down and was really proud of them.”

“She sounds cool.”

“She was. She was a lot like you.”

“Blind?”

“No. Angry.” He didn’t give her time to consider this. “I’m going to move your hand. Is that okay?”

“Yeah.”

His hand came around hers. His hands were calloused, like Billy’s had been. He was similar to Billy in a lot of ways: impulsive, rebellious, and haunted by past abuse. But Eddie hadn’t let the abuse harden him. Sometimes Max wondered if Billy might have become more like Eddie if he’d lived long enough. She hoped so.

Eddie moved her hand to the neck of the guitar, over the strings.

“Just get to know her for now,” he said. “You should meet her naturally. You can’t see her, so learning is going to be different. I did a few practice sessions blindfolded, just to get the feeling of it.”

Max ran a fingernail over the fat E string, making it rasp.

“That’s called the fat E,” Eddie said. “The smallest string is called the high E.”

Eddie moved her hand over each string.

“It goes E, A, D, G, B, E,” he said.

“Why can’t they just be A B C D E F?” Max asked.

“Because musicians don’t know how to spell,” Eddie said. “You can remember it this way. Eddie—“ He plucked the low E . “-Ate-“ A . “-Dynamite-“ D . “-Good-“ G . “-Bye-“ B . “Eddie.” E .

Max grinned.

“Eddie ate dynamite, goodbye Eddie,” she repeated.

“It tasted terrible,” Eddie said.

Max laughed. It was an actual laugh, not just the fake giggles she attempted when the doctor made lame jokes.

“How about… Eddie And Demobats… Got Bad Ending.”

“Eddie And Dustin Give Badass Energy.”

“Eddie’s A Dinosaur. Go to Bed Early.”

“I’m not that old!” Eddie protested

“Eddie ate drugs. Got big eyes.”

“That’s a good one. You ready for the next lesson?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, this is called the nut. Hey! No laughing! That’s actually what it’s called!”

Lucas stood in the doorway to Max's room and watched her laugh. It was a rusty sound, and sounded painful, but it was there. It was music.

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

Grima and Final Blows

The other day I mentioned that I had an essay about Grima to write that I'd been putting off, and between that and all the great essays my fellow Grimleal scholars have been putting out recently, I decided to sit down and finally get it done.

So here you go. An analysis of Grima's difficulties with directly killing people.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, because one of my favorite things to explore when it comes to Grima is the gap between their villain act, which they actively play up in front of others in both Awakening and FEH, and their true feelings, which are hinted at in Awakening (particularly through the Future Past DLC) and made even clearer in FEH— their own evil actions are repulsive to them, and they wish they could live normally among humans, but they don’t believe they have any choice but to be the monster that “the fell dragon, Grima” is supposed to be. They are committed to this “fell dragon” character, to putting on a show for everyone, and they are so good at it that it’s easy to overlook that they… uh… aren’t very good at killing anyone important. Not directly, anyway.

Sure, Grima is responsible for numerous deaths. But what is their actual kill count? Well, in Awakening’s main game… zero. (Unless you count Chrom, but, as we witness, that was not a voluntary act on their part; Validar took control of their body. You could also make the argument that Grima “claiming the sacrifice” at the Dragon’s Table counts, but the problem with that is, although it’s obvious that Grima accepts the life force of the Grimleal members as a sacrifice, it’s not at all clear whether or not Grima personally kills them. Although it’s possible that they did off screen, it’s also possible that Validar killed them, or that they were ordered to take their own lives; there’s no reason Grima would have had to lay a hand on them.) In the Future Past, it’s… one, maybe one and half (Naga’s spirit, and Tiki, but only in body. More on this later.)

And it’s not as though Fire Emblem shies away from showing villains directly murdering people, Even in Awakening itself, the intro to Chapter 9 shows Aversa killing a Plegian soldier for delivering an unsatisfactory report, so it wouldn’t have been out of place to let Grima stab a few NPCs as a show of brutality. Especially seeing as Grima is the evil dragon final boss. As early as Mystery of the Emblem, we can see Medeus killing his cleric hostages to restore his own health if you fail to rescue them before trying to defeat him, and as recently as Engage, we get a whole cutscene of Sombron eating Hyacinth. Fantasy violence my beloved <3

Anyway, the point is, Grima could have been written to be much more violent and I don’t think anyone would have complained. Instead, though, Grima repeatedly— and consistently across the series— tries to avoid engaging in direct combat.

Let’s start with what Grima does in the main game of Awakening. We know that Risen pursue Lucina into the past, because we see them fall out of the portal with her in Chapter 1. We also know that those Risen, as well as the others that are appearing throughout the land, are not being directly controlled by Grima, because later in Chapter 13, as the Shepherds are leaving Plegia after meeting with Validar, Aversa, and the Hierophant, they are pursued by more skilled Risen, and Frederick notes that “Either they are learning our ways, or someone is commanding them…” So… It seems that sending the Risen—with or without specific orders—to attack while Grima is not themself present is a favored tactic.

But what about when Grima is present? Take a look at the Endgame: Grima chapter. Yes, you eventually get to engage Grima in direct combat. But not immediately. What Grima does first is…

Grima attacks the Shepherds with dark spikes from a distance, reducing everyone’s hp to 1. Now, here’s what happens next: Grima attempts to possess their past self, Robin hears the voices of their friends and breaks free, Naga heals everyone back to full health, and then the fight against Grima begins… Except actually, the Shepherds have to get to Grima first, because they’re at the top of the map and they’re not budging. Naga warns them that “Grima’s servants will beset [them] to no end.” and she’s not kidding. Grimleal reinforcements will spawn infinitely, and they can hit pretty hard. Even with everyone starting at full health, it’s possible to lose units to these Grimleal soldiers if Grima isn’t defeated quickly. Can you imagine what would happen if Naga hadn’t healed the Shepherds first?

Well, I’d guess that they’d probably all die to the Grimleal without Grima having to face them up close. Which was probably what Grima was going for.

This isn’t the only time Grima tries the dark spikes trick, either. Grima attempts this exact same move in the Future Past 3 when they face Lucina, Severa, Laurent, and Gerome.

Grima announces “With the next blow, I will kill you.” and then demands that they hand over the Fire Emblem as well as the gemstone they hold. The threat is very real. But…

Given that at 1hp, a gust of wind could take the kids out, would it not have been easier and faster to kill them and just loot their bodies immediately? And yet Grima lets the kids have an extended discussion about sacrifice, and even suggests that Lucina would indeed buy a little more time by running… Again, I cannot stress enough that Grima should be able to finish them off in one hit at this point.

So the plan was almost certainly to back off and let the Risen do the actual killing, even though that would be a lot less efficient under the circumstances. And when Chrom and the Shepherds arrive, Grima immediately turns their attention to them, saying “If it’s a reunion you seek, my soldiers shall welcome you on my behalf.” Then they once again pick a spot at the back of the map and refuse to move from it, forcing the Shepherds to fight through the Risen in order to engage Grima in combat at all.

And sure, Grima has some excuses. “I was hoping not to have to flex any muscle,” they say right before the dark spikes attack, as if to justify why they didn’t do it sooner. And of course they taunt Lucina over having to choose to whether to run as her friends sacrifice themselves for her or to stay and fight and die with them. “I must say I shall enjoy this either way!” Yes, Grima, we get it, you’ve made it very clear that you’re an arrogant asshole.

But is arrogance really all there is to it? If we look at what Tiki tells Grima in the good ending of the Future Past, it looks as though Grima’s arrogance has brought their own downfall. “If you had left Mount Prism alone, Grima, you might have stood a chance. Instead, you have brought the Awakening right to your feet.” However, when you think about it… Is Tiki’s continued existence not in itself a result of Grima’s repeated pattern of not really wanting to land a finishing blow? The game states that Grima did in fact kill Tiki… but only in body, not in spirit. This is, according to Tiki, because Robin intervened.

Now, the question I have is… Is it really possible that Robin could have intervened both against Grima’s will and without them having any idea? Honestly, it’s hard to tell exactly how aware Grima is of Robin’s resistance, because they lie about it a lot, e.g. stating that Robin’s spirit perished in sending Chrom back to his own world, even though just moments later, Robin is once again overpowering them. So, keeping in mind that Grima is a liar, was Grima really arrogant to leave Tiki’s body in Ylisstol, and to not make sure that her spirit was fully destroyed? Or was Robin simply able to capitalize on Grima’s propensity towards backing off?

Because surely the only way Grima could be unaware that Robin had acted against them is if Robin hadn’t actually acted against them. I don’t think I believe that Grima really wanted Tiki gone. Naga, sure—longtime nemesis and all. But if Grima had truly cared about seeing Tiki’s existence destroyed… Well, I doubt Robin could have interfered that much.

But maybe it could still be a matter of arrogance. Maybe Grima just didn’t think Tiki’s spirit could do anything with Naga’s spirit gone, and thus didn't care to pay attention to her anymore once she seemed dead enough.

If that’s true, it doesn’t explain why Shadows of Valentia Grima exhibits the exact same habits when fighting Alm and Celica, despite never having been outside of the Thabes Labyrinth at this point in their life. As opposed to the various Terrors throughout the rest of the Labyrinth, which chase Alm (or Celica) down in the overworld to force a fight, Grima is immobile in their room, and will wait patiently there indefinitely until the player chooses to engage. You can even evacuate from the dungeon.

But if you do choose to fight Grima, it proceeds much like the battles against them in Awakening go. The main difference is that they actually will move from their starting position this time, if you position someone in their range. That still requires a fight against (proto-)Risen who are spawning in from the sides to stop your party’s advance.

So… Now it’s starting to look like Grima actively prefers this one particular trick… And it’s a fundamentally defensive maneuver, which makes perfect sense from SoV Grima’s standpoint (they were attacked out of nowhere, after all), but is not really an obvious standout strategy for Awakening Grima, whose taunts and threats suggest an aggression that would be better supported with a more offensive strategy… Consider, too, that Awakening Grima is in fact being even more defensive than their SoV iteration, since they don’t move towards you at all.

With all that in mind, it really, really looks like Grima doesn’t want to fight, especially in Awakening. Not that they don’t intend for the Shepherds to die—on the contrary, they’ve set everything up so that the Shepherds will eventually be overwhelmed—but that they don’t want to land the killing blow.

(And gee, I wonder what might be fueling their reluctance? Being controlled and made to kill your best friend by your own hand wouldn't be totally traumatic or anything, right?)

And then... Funny thing here, I’ve been procrastinating writing this essay for a long time. I originally started thinking about it shortly before the Depths of Despair banner was released in FEH, so imagine my surprise when I saw this characterization hold up in the writing of Fell Exalt Chrom’s Forging Bonds as well… The Grima there says that Chrom was the one to kill the rest of the Shepherds. Now, it’s pretty clear that it was through Grima controlling him, but that’s not the point. The point is that once again, Grima didn't have to do any direct killing.

Look, if it had only ever happened once, I could buy that maybe Grima was just underestimating their opponents, that maybe they thought they could get away without having to put very much work in. But for Grima to operate this way so many times, so consistently, and to their own detriment? No...

Grima doesn’t like direct combat. Grima has trouble even when it’s a fight they asked for.

And when you think about it, that makes their reaction to Robin choosing to land the final blow themself in the sacrifice ending all the more understandable.

“…YOU WOULD… NOT DARE!”

Because Grima would not dare. Grima has always preferred to let someone else land the final blow.

[mangomaking]

I don't believe I've shared this!!! Theodore's family as of January 1945: His father who attempted to make himself a lich, his mother who was his father's hostage, and himself.

Design notes:

I've always imagined Theo is the spitting image of his father, even with the differences of age and facial hair (Theo can grow his out but chooses not to). They share similar facial structure, hair color, and skin tone. Their jaws are more square shaped than Victoria's.

Vincent has narrower, more scrutinizing eyes. Theo has his mother's eyes, round and brown; the most distinct trait he shares with her. His have a slight pink undertone as a result of the Wild Magic concentrated in him—which he also got from Victoria's side.

The faint shimmery print woven into Vincent's tie and the lining of his jacket imitate the sheen of crow feathers. Overall I wanted his darker color palette to allude to the crow. This comes from their family name, von Kraehenbuehl, which means "crow hill" in Swiss German.

Vincent has always been a slender man (JUMPSCARE). He is quite handy with both firearms and melee weapons—a competent businessman must know his own wares!—but maintains a lean figure.

Theo carries more fat than his father. Muscle also contributes to the density of his build, but it lacks obvious definition.

Victoria is quite slim now, but in future designs I will have her regain the weight she lost in this stressful period of her life (her son enlisting to contribute magical force to the frontlines; her husband becoming increasingly corrupt and quite literally taking her hostage).

[cool-kink-sis]

No you don't understand, I romanced Josephine whilst I was doing my worst, asshole Inquisitor run. I was lobotomising people, punching dorian, punching solas, killing blackwall, killing the chargers, killing hawke, getting cullen back on the drugs, pushing cassandra to alcoholism, exiling sera, dorian--cole left he hated me so much, compassion said i think not!!

Meanwhile Josies having her little disney princess romance and its so utterly disconcerting that it wasnt even funny. Like leilana is right to be concerned?? I am unhinged.

Wild they didnt include the advisors on the approval system cos that wouldve been fun to navigate.

[deer-with-a-stick]

Trying to throw the Raphael boss fight at my party for a level 20 oneshot because I think the mechanics are very cool but I for the life of me cannot find any information on the soul pillars beyond "they have 99 hp and buff Raphael"

Urgh prep for that encounter might have to wait until I get to that fight and can write down stats -_-

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

At all times I'm thinking about Pacific Rim saying the heart of it all is still the Knight and the Sword and the Dragon

[alicentes]

I saw a comment recently that was like “season two (of hotd) just seems like it’s going to be two teenagers trying to fight experienced dragon riders and war veterans at this point” and if that doesn’t perfectly describe what it looks like they’ve set up lmfao

[tanoraqui]

I want very post-reembodiment&reconciliation fucked up Never Have I Ever with veterans of Beleriand. Post- enough that it’s genuinely more friendly ribbing than restarting fights. The first person who can always says, “Never have I ever killed another elf.” Then things like, “Never have I ever tried to stage a coup.” “Never have I ever killed an orc I recognized from their time as an elf.” “Never have I ever eaten elf flesh.” (Everyone who was ever a thrall in Angband and almost everyone who crossed the Ice takes a shot.)

[hauntingblue]

I

<3

In between arc (kinda) episodes

Pt. 3

[asmidge]

emotional over how Android 17 was built to kill and now his job is protecting life. he doesn’t want to kill the poachers even though they directly threaten the animals that are so important to him

he has a wife and kids now and has an actual life, something that Dr Gero never envisioned for him or his sister. they were created as tools meant to kill Goku but they’re his friend now. they live for themselves and value the lives that they were originally meant to destroy

[the-cryptographer]

I know it’s uncomfortable to look at and think about the emotional intensity of Fenris’s trauma bond to Danarius, but how does Fenris’s character even begin to make sense if he wasn’t a huge simp for the guy? Why did he kill all those fog warriors if he didn’t just idolise Danarius to the moon? Why did he stand around pouring glasses of wine while slave children were being used as blood sacrifices? Why is he so afraid of a relationship with Hawke (someone also in a position of power over him) if he doesn’t inherently understand his capacity to eclipse his own personhood and do terrible things just because someone he loves tells him to? Why does he lie in act 1 about how if Danarius doesn’t come hunting him, he’ll return to Tevinter to kill him? Or lie about how his only value to Danarius is the lyrium Danarius is apparently going to skin him for? If he had no affection for Danarius, why doesn’t he deny it when Danarius says as much during Alone? And beyond that- Why did Danarius wipe his memories, isolate him from his family and other slaves, and brainwash him, if he didn’t intend to create someone wholly dependent on him, who loved him alone and obeyed orders without question?

Look, I’m not happy that this ↑ is the only lengthy portrayal we get of a Tevinter slave in these games. I think it’s a real disservice that ‘slave who loved their master’ and ‘slave who repeats white man’s burden rhetoric verbatim about how he is mages are dangerous and need someone looking after them’ is the guy given the biggest voice. I would love to see more slaves and ex-slaves (and, lbr, people of colour) with a greater sense of ambition and their own agency, who never bought into the trap of trauma bonding with their abusers. But-!! Actually-!! I think the game actually does a great job of calling Fenris’s testimony into question! It slaps pretty hard that Varania shows up and tells him he’s full of shit. He doesn’t know what her life was like, and he doesn’t speak for her. Like, sure, Varania is full of shit too. But Fenris doesn’t speak for anyone but himself! He doesn’t speak for all those slaves that were sacrificed in blood magic rituals, because he wasn’t one of them and was never going to be! And, you know what? I don’t have any trouble believing the guy who isolates himself in his manor, who is too traumatised and afraid of even going to the Alienage to be around other elves, has no fucking perspective on their lives!

And, ugh, I love him. I love him soooo much. He and Merrill are my favourite characters in this whole game. I love him being this messy ugly person who loves so hard, and loves so hard he’ll kill whoever Danarius and Hawke tell him to, and loves so hard he buries himself in logic and anger to try to escape from feeling it. Whose best friends are all humans because he doesn’t know how to fucking be around other elves after the way he’s been conditioned. Who just spends the first two acts of the game trying to misrepresent himself as someone way harsher and stronger than he is because, hey, maybe if he says he hates mages enough, he’ll start to believe it. And maybe if he believes it, he can stop himself from giving in and giving up and walking docilely back to Tevinter at Danarius’s side, the way he does if Hawke betrays him. And, ugh, god, I know why people don’t want to look at it, but how do you understand literally anything this character does without it? It’s so frustrating. I love him, and I feel like I don’t even know the guy half the fandom is talking about most of the time.

[b0nelessdoodles]

hehehehe silly goblin doodles from the year

[celepeace]

Sometimes I'm surprised that monster hunter isn't more popular among the creature design and spec evo corners of tumblr, at least the portions that also play video games, and then I remember that it's just about as hard as soulsborne games (I'd argue some specific entries are even harder) but doesn't have any of the atmospheric or story elements to attract people. It gets by on sheer gameplay alone and isn't a pvp game either. There is no way to make the game easier besides picking one of the less mechanically complex weapons and git gud. If it wasn't for the neat dinosaurs I couldn't think of a game less alluring to the average tumblr user

[konakoro]

Because I'm playing both and have them on my mind, answer me this:

[nerosdayinanime]

wanna make my own kny httyd au

[tovaicas]

I think the main reason the way the dravanians are handled (other than the kinda shitty implications of this game wanting to have its cake and eat it too re: the dragons, so that it doesn't have to engage with the honestly terrifying and extremely sad plight of the dravanian horde so that the player can still have mindless dragons to fight that you don't have to feel bad abt killing) annoys me so much is that heavensward had an honestly good curated experience of you learning gradually and then all at once just like an ishgardian would that the dravanians are real people with lives, families, customs, and dreams and not the mindlessly hyper-violent animals you've up until anyx trine you've been made to believe they are, something that is started in ARR with midgardsormr but really hammered home that all the dragons, even the ones you've killed, are sentient, intelligent beings with lives and many simply want quiet lives away from the war and don't want to lose their children to it. up until then you've been made to fear dragons and think of them as deserving of violence in turn simply for being what they are under the assumption they're mindless swarming beasts...just as the ishgardians do. heavensward does an honestly very good job of mirroring the ishgardian mindset and viewpoint of the war to you so that you can experience what ishgard feels when the truth is finally laid out for you.

but then as soon as we get anywhere close to actually engaging with that nuance, with what that says about the situation of the dravanian horde and ourselves, combined with the previous, initially offhand lore that the dragons literally cannot ignore the calls of their sires (which is the entire potential crisis that drags aymeric in for his first on-screen appearance, because midgardsormr can drag every dravanian currently alive into the war if he wants) and that maybe this is a far more complicated and tragic situation for all sides than we initially expected, and that maybe nidhogg's brood suffers in a way that's actually very similar to the ishgardians - we drop all of that. we drop it so that we can have an enemy in dungeons we don't have to feel bad about killing, so that we don't have to feel too uncomfortable with our actions or with running these two dungeons.