#I think Lyse and G'raha should talk

[wataridori-art]

Is there anything left of the person you replaced with someone else?

something about being someone else for so long that you forgot how to be yourself

[apathmakerstale]

I NEED a romcom fic about each of the nations leaders battling for the WoL post-Endwalker, either romantically, familiarly, and politically when they start to think about finally settling down.

Think about it.

A.U with Zenos making Garlemald make peace for the sole reason of the WoL, as him literally killing his father for them and deposing the government is a pretty big indication he would like them there to always be able to fu-fight regardless of what his countryman think.

Hien claiming that since they won him his country back, then they can be rightfully rule alongside him, as well as being vied for by many leaders of the Azim Steppes since whatever tribe they are apart of auto-wins the Naadam each year. Sadu, Magni, Cirina etc.

Lyse and Raubahn putting them up as a potential new leader of Ala Mhigo and what better to rule alongside as than the women who helped also free it and popular figurehead- this one works more personally since my WoL is a Highlander.

Ishgard with Aymeric saying who better to help lead than the person who ended their millennia long war, as well as being personally patronized by the Father of Dragons, and adopted by House Fortemps.

Gridania and the Seedseer council claiming that since they��re a White Mage, that means they’re a honorary Padjal and should settle there along- another personal aside since my WoL grew up there, that it’s their home.

Limsa can claim that where better than the place where they’re the leader of a company of prestigious heroes, fought side-by-side with their admiral and offered a premium place in Costa Del Sol or help with furnishing their personal Island Sanctuary.

Ul’Dah has a pincer attack, with them being a close personal friend of the Sultana, and with two members of the Syndicate, and having one in their 'debt' (meaning they don't want to piss them off more). With Raubahn also wanting to support his queen, and also being a personal friend of the Mandervilles.

You can say Sharlayan has a bit of stake in that the WoL is the only one to ever visit the edge of the universe and has a trove of knowledge only know to them like the First, as well as being a friend of a highly respected house, and access to a lot of lost magicks.

Maybe even with Radz-a-Han there could be a push for them being the new Satrap, despite it being a defunct ceremonial position now as a confidant of many other dragons and the savior of their loved rulers sister.

Hingashi and by that I mean Kugane I struggle with since they're really isolationist, but WoL do have the possibility of being a coveted artisan who has a lot of pull with traders and connections with half the world’s leaders, who may also be attempting to court them if the end of Endwalker means anything. Plus the Four Lords being nearby who would be glad to have Tenzen’s inheritor nearby.

Go even further and have The First and all the nations there asking for them since they’re the savior of their world, and the Crystarium basically sees them as a Legend anyway with how often G'raha spoke of them so lovely and fondly and being the one who freed Eulemore. Add that with G'raha's adoration of you and spin it how you both could effectively explore the remainder of the world together in retirement.

GO FURTHER with even the Void with Zero and Golbez for pure humor.

Even toss in Ultima Thule to round out the absurdity.

And a dash of the Ancients watching it all and being jealous.

And all of these are backlit by the various Job/Class guilds who would love to have them in their respective nations, the allied tribes that would also love to have them, Bozja and the various other countries they've helped save- the possibilities are endless.

For maximum humor make it all during some world conference or peace talks or something so you have a ton of the rivals sniping at each other, bad flirting, and blatant attempts at bribery.

Annoyance, embarrassment or pure obliviousness could be the reaction of the WoL.

God I need to finish my backlog, I need this.

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

giant vent about how people are talking about dt you've been warned

"i don't like the focus on wuk lamat" good for you! she's a leader and will likely be shelved before the end of 7.x! i still cannot escape the scions after they fucking disbanded despite being on a new continent, so you don't get to whine abt this if you're also going to crawl up my ass every time i say the scions never fucking off made ew worse and impaired my ability to give a fuck about shb! ew had two non-twins characters i deeply cared about at all going in, and it killed off both!

i am so. fucking. tired. of most of the scions. the one scion i did not think needed a break due to overexposure got a proper break (it was a funny break so i didn't mind at all and it keeps him from getting overexposed too, but it's notable that he was the only one besides the twins I wasn't ready to see the back of by the end of 6.55), and the one i most needed to not fucking see for at least one major patch got a fully voiced cutscene focusing entirely on him and the wol. the scions are part of the weakest part of this expac, which is the fear to let new shit stand on its own.

like, even the twins have been around long enough that they could stand a long-term break, which would even give an excuse for them to elongthen them.

maybe if they actually give them proper arcs or ever let the writing acknowledge that g'raha is a fucking asshole (and still is in dt bc jesus fucking christ that is not a question you ask the fucking wol and he should fucking know that, he had to have at least read about the bloody banquet, the waking sands attack by livia, the entry of azys lla, or the raid on the vault at minimum, even my uncanonical levels of cold bastard main had people he cared about die at those events it is ABSURD what the writing lets the cat get away with saying without even a "dude what the fuck" option) i might accept them having major screentime again, but until then they can piss off and we can have more newbies or heavily underserved oldbies

like. to go back to the first point. think about how often characters show up after they become leaders. Lyse and Aymeric both almost completely vanish after their respective x.3 (hell, lyse vanishes before then). wuk lamat has been chained to tural, even with the doubleking situation she's going to be wanted at home--aymeric isn't sole leader either, remember, and lyse isn't even the one in charge of the entire nation and she's still heavily restricted. dealing with her for not even a full patch cycle is not going to kill you any more than me having to see g'raha and emet constantly trotted out as my wol's narrator-enforced besties killed me. she showed up in the second half for the same reason aymeric, raubahn, and lyse show up after they are removed from focus: because there's a FUCKING WAR involving HER COUNTRY.

they aren't even setting her up as the major focus for the patches! they set her up for a fucking GOODBYE. erenville has gotten more teasing hints at having long-term focus! you weirdos!

i would be less annoyed about this if some of these same people hadn't crawled up my ass over not liking the scions focus of shb and ew. yeah, trial of a silent protag is we need people to talk for us! sometimes that means we get stuck with people we don't like! but at least yours WILL GO AWAY. the characters i actively dislike are hanging around like a pre-antibiotics tuberculosis infection and it only makes me like them less because i'm not allowed to ever express dislike of them even when they're being shitty or i should generally be allowed to express distaste, while at the same time characters i liked don't even get neutral options, it's all two mostly-identical ways of saying "boo i hate your pussy".

idk. i feel like people are only noticing flaws that have been there since the beginning bc we have fun spunky girl and her tragic foil who is also a girl in front instead of the scions and a moody guy, assuming they're making their case in good faith at all (which many are very obviously not, since they're somehow unable to perceive character development that is incredibly obvious).

insert meme about the illusion of choice leading to two more years of stb discourse for some reason

(it is. incredibly frustrating. to have actual complaints. like the return of world-ending threat stakes, the hamhanded way callbacks were done, and the reluctance to actually grapple with the implications of [finalzone]. and then see absolutely nobody else having them bc anyone willing to talk just wants to bash wuk lamat and sphene.)

just. god. if you don't see your wol as an auron, fine, but don't pretend they were less vital to how this expac played out than any other expac, or that they were sidelined compared to elsewhen. the wol is a vital pillar for how wuk lamat turns out over the expac and wuk lamat taking the spotlight in a few scenes doesn't negate that the wol is still at worst the second-most important person in the room. and given the cultural context of the new zones? the writing would have been WAY WORSE if they were the one doing everything.

or like. just the general expectation i've seen repeatedly that something doing setup will pay the same emotional dividends as something using that setup as a launch point. which, you can crit it as-is just fine god knows i'm willing to bitch about stuff that's probably getting more focus in the future, but if you're going into something where the constant refrain from devs and ads and even the game itself going in was "beach vacation (gone wrong)" and "please temper expectations" and expecting it to blow your mind uhhhhh i don't think it's the writer's fault? they were upfront that this was not going to be huge in terms of like... massive recontextualization and targeted emotional blows like shb was.

i really do think a lot of the hate of dt (rather than dislike) is just. bigotry. there is nothing major done poorly here that the rest of the game hasn't handled poorly and usually worse before (if you try to tell me the ff9 stuff was done worse than the nonsense ff4 shit in ew i will slap you, as someone who has gone in with about the same level of familiarity with both and zero nostalgia for either). the one exception i can think of is, like, Erenville's name and the aforementioned turning a blind eye to the deeper implications of [finalzone], and nobody bitching about dt as a whole mentions those as reasons to hate the entire expac. it's all wuk lamat and the wol not being in the spotlight!

[snow-system-wol]

I've been considering how much G'raha knows about S'ria's backstory -- it wouldn't be much from S'ria himself, yet.

And where I ended up with that is that G'raha knows the few facts that the rest of the Scions have figured out (at this point, S'ria has an open policy of "you all can talk about me among yourselves if you think it's for a good reason", and at least someone would consider making sure G'raha takes care re: triggers a good reason.)

So, by some point between 5.3 and 5.4, G'raha is aware of the following points that the Scions collectively know:

(note: due to timeline, at the end of 5.5, this is not information Estinien would have yet.)

Tw: SA and death

Allegedly, in Garlemald, murdered a man whose household he lived in, and then fled the country. (Overheard by Lyse)

So, G'raha and the other Scions (sans Estinien at the moment), have:

S'ria lived in Gyr Abania at the time of Garlean takeover, and his tribe was likely all killed (flashback witnessed by Lyse)

Is not interested in sex, and any very sudden sexual advances should not be considered giving consent -- that is not S'ria. (Thancred, dealt with firsthand.)

Has some type of severe sexual trauma (assumptions from observations, Thancred)

(Collective implication of pts 1, 2, and 4, being assuming some sort of trafficking situation, but not confirmed.)