#I'm gonna hunt this fucking elf for sport if he says one more goddamn word to Alphinaud I swear to god

[motheatenscarf]

That said the story for Heavensward was good, I was really enjoying it, and then it sent me on a corporate team building retreat to make peace with the dragons including Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle.

The narrative tension has kind of dissolved, things seemed pretty urgent but now we're taking our time going on an amazing journey together, and that's fun! Like, that's where the flavor of RPGs comes from! Walking simulator, babey!

But also, uhhhh, lol, I thought we were doing this because the dragons were about to attack Ishgard RIGHT fucking now? We had to RUN to tell Aymeric not to launch a preemptive strike, but now we're making pit stops back in Gridania because oh shit, nobody's heard the recast Kan E-Senna yet!

But yeah, it's making me like Ysayle a lot, which I'm concerned about. Last really cool lady character I got attached to was Moenbryda and in retrospect I realized I hadn't seen like, any posting about her, which makes me concerned she'll either die or get let down by the narrative. That or it's just fandom's usual tendency to ignore female characters for less interesting male counterparts.

Speaking of.

Estinien...

Now, he can give Alphinaud the business for being a pampered little rich boy who doesn't know how to collect firewood all he wants, he's not wrong, the boy was kind of an entitled shit when we first met him and frankly he could stand to do more physical labor to build character or at least sympathy for people who do physical labor. That's the class enemy upbringing we gotta weed out of him.

HOWEVER.

I kind of draw the line! At MOCKING the traumatized child who's still got hella PTSD about getting all his friends maybe killed! For worrying about the WoL when he might have sent her into a deathtrap again!

Like, it's clear he's not being intentionally cruel, but uh, wow what a piece of shit. Which really contextualizes his earlier critiques of him. And like. That's been all of their interactions so far, is him relentlessly harping on the boy to be stronger and tougher and have less feelings and like. I've seen this happen to boys in my own real life and it just reminds me of how shitty fathers and male role models try to impart shitty lessons onto boys and mess them up for life. And this gives that kinda vibe! And I don't!! Like!! Estinien!!

If he keeps trying to instill my boy with toxic masculinity, I'm going to rip his intestines out with my fucking teeth and strangle him with them!!!!