endeavorsreward

[endeavorsreward]

Knight and Queen

[endeavorsreward]

Ramza Beoulve

[endeavorsreward]

You’re just an empty cage if you kill the bird

[endeavorsreward]

Canopus,the Wind-caller

[endeavorsreward]

"I still haven't said everything I want to him, and I haven't heard his truth!"

God this hit me like a fucking train. Vaan's mental image of Basch, the man he blames for his brother's death, does not match the reality of the emaciated man who has nothing and would still sacrifice himself to help others escape.

While I do think selflessness is Vaan's norm (and foreshadowing in this instance), it's the need for closure that drives him to help Basch - the kicker being the hypocrisy of denouncing self-sacrifice among Dalmascan soldiers, which also suggests that perhaps he's struggled with hating Reks for having left.

[endeavorsreward]

“He’s not my apprentice.”

This entire page is so cute

[endeavorsreward]

The FFXII manga is:

Good

Vaan compares Nalbina prison to the state of Rabanstre under Archadian rule, and asserts that his youth is not a weakness as claimed by the other prisoner, but rather a strength - he hasn't grown complacent about fighting against the Empire in the way the other prisoner has acquiesced to death by a corrupt prison system. Behind adulthood trails disillusionment, sure, but we later find out that the prisoner was a soldier there at Nalbina, where the war started and ended, bookended by two significant deaths.

Interestingly, Vaan describes losing the stone (the Dusk Shard, unbeknownst to him) as "opening up a black hole." The stone is a tether between his past (his brother) and his future (becoming a sky pirate). His small rebellion of stealing back from the Empire, holding that stone so close to a heart of resentment, is likely what gets him noticed by the Occuria - the perceived power he thinks he lost here at Nalbina prison is indeed a black hole.

[endeavorsreward]

FF12’s Concept art and Happy anniversary FINAL FANTASY XII!

[endeavorsreward]

Oh, THERE’S the Nabradian Lancer from the raid!

YES Ba'Gamnan drag them

[endeavorsreward]

Both true tho

Balthier in FFXII (game): Clever, handsome, fresh to death, effortlessly charming, young man who ran away from home due to family issues

Balthier in FFXII (manga): Clever, stupid as hell, looks and acts his age, boy who seeks attention from multiple women bc he's insecure af

[endeavorsreward]

This is heartbreaking. Basch explains to Reks that he abandoned his brother and sickly mother because he couldn't bear living under the Empire's rule after the destruction and annexation of Landis.

And then, immediately after Noah confronts Basch and kills the king, Reks unknowingly drops a bomb on him:

[endeavorsreward]

I have a lot of feelings about Louveria...

Ruvelia and Orinas Atkascha

[endeavorsreward]

I’m gonna hate this in the morning but have a Meliadoul

[endeavorsreward]

Argath Thadalfus　2021.2.21

[endeavorsreward]

Save her, Alma. Save them all.

The High Seraph

[endeavorsreward]

This is a really succinct and well-written piece about how plot and mechanics in Vagrant Story were informed by character. I actually think there’s more to say about the powers gifted by Lea Monde in the context of greater Ivalice, in which some receive “The Gift” - but it’s not worth distracting from the point my good friend has made here.

There's something so... romantic about Lea Monde, the way abilities flower in its inhabitants as manifestations of their greatest strengths. Ashley's morally just and empathetic heart touches the wavelengths of others, he's the perfect candidate to bear the burden of thousands of lost souls - he links with Samantha because she's the only one in her group who mourns their losses. Merlose is a psychologist by profession, and a Heart-Seer by nature - the Dark is just the ink that pens the way she "reads" people. Hardin scrying on distant places is an emphasis on tactical and military know-how, and Sydney... Sydney himself is a wellspring of baggage that he sheds in the form of fiends; a charismatic figure who "compels" friend and enemy alike - and that ability is so often questioned that it paints all others as metaphor too.

And just as with any great character in any great text, they are each immortalized.

[endeavorsreward]

This is heartbreaking. Basch explains to Reks that he abandoned his brother and sickly mother because he couldn't bear living under the Empire's rule after the destruction and annexation of Landis.

And then, immediately after Noah confronts Basch and kills the king, Reks unknowingly drops a bomb on him: