#Phoenix born: Joshua

[gottamusethemall]

@flamesofrebirths

There's something that has been bothering for a moment now, and of course Jote noticed. She always makes sure Joshua's doing alright, and he appreciates it. He wishes she hadn't, though. He's not sure he wants to know the truth. That's why he had remained silent since they left Dalimil. He wishes he hadn't been sick, so he could have seen by himself.

He hesitates before asking the question; he's still not sure he wants to do it. Jote is his protector, but she's also the only friend he has. "I think I felt my brother's presence in Dalimil. Why did you want us to leave ?" he asks calmly. He's not mad at her; he just wishes to understand.

Jote wasn’t going to take any chances after Lostwing. Travelling as part of a large group had blown up in their faces and had almost cost Jote her life in one way or another and possibly Joshua’s freedom by being forced to serve Waloed. As long as they didn’t stay in one place too long, they wouldn’t draw too much attention on themselves so they can travel through the rest of Ash. 

Seeing the commotion going on downstairs, Jote felt it was best not to get involved as it would put them in the spotlight. That was something that the Undying wanted to avoid as the group operated from the shadows as much as possible and the ruckus downstairs would be bad publicity should they have to return at a later date. 

“My apologies my lord. There was a fight going on downstairs. Someone was fighting members of the Waloedian army. Didn’t want to risk you being targeted after Lostwing and Caer Norvent.” She admitted. She didn’t know what the transgressors want and didn’t want to possibly risk another encounter. 

Hearing that he had felt his brother caused Jote to stop in her tracks for a while. She doubted that Joshua would make up a story for no reason, but that begged the question of what Clive would possibly be doing out this far. “Do you think that it might have been your brother that was fighting the soldiers?” Part of her contemplated having the two of them go back, but that was going to be at Joshua’s discretion if they go back into Dalimil or not. 

[ignitedshield]

If you had been the Phoenix, your brother would have been spared. It's your fault.

[aethersflood]

FINAL FANTASY 16 EIKONS RANKED BY TUMBLR (x) #2 - PHOENIX, THE WARDEN OF FIRE

"The Warden of Fire, whose strength resides within Joshua Rosfield, heir to the Rosarian throne. The Phoenix is always born in the ducal line, and is worshipped by the populace—not least because its flames of both destruction and regeneration have delivered the duchy from disaster many times over."

[ffxiii-et-al]

Joshua Rosfield is a true shield of Rosaria, and I wish that he'd gotten that acknowledgement at the end of FF16.

I want that man to know that he is everything that he looked up to in Clive when he was a little boy. He is brave, he is smart, he is a leader, and despite his frailty, he is not weak.

I want him to know that his brother needed him, that all of his suffering was worth it and appreciated, and that Clive wouldn't have made it very far without him. That he is ultimately Clive's protector and hero, as evidenced when he appeared in Ultima's trap and reminded Clive of who he was.

He even gave Phoenix to Clive in the end, which was a massive sacrifice. Not only was Phoenix keeping him alive, but his Eikon seemed to be the only reason he'd ever felt 'special' or powerful in his life. Sacrificing that to protect his brother was beautiful, considering how against it he was while they were in Ash.

As his English voice actor, Jonathan Case, described, he is "always an Angel, never a God" in a world of gods that made him feel like he wasn't strong enough.

And yet, he never waivers in his resolve, jumping into the fray to help his brother and his friends. He wants to leave them a better world when he departs, since he assumes he's on borrowed time, being born who and how he was.

And yet, he is a defier of fate, and forged his own path in order to love, protect, and ultimately save his brother.

Joshua Rosfield, you are the greatest shield of all.

[shitpostingkats]

Pinning Down Every Shinjuku Reapers Hanafuda Suit

In The World Ends With You, there are a total of twelve (named) reapers, each corresponding to a member of the chinese zodiac. They continue this design philosophy in NEO, with all of the Shinjuku reapers being based off a different suit of Hanafuda.

Let's start with the ones we know.

(post does contain spoilers)

Tsugumi - January, Crane

Conveniently, most of the reaper's birth months point to their suit, as well as their noise forms, for the ones that have them. Tsugumi is a new years baby, and Grus Cantus is from the hikari card. (Each suit is divided into four cards, with higher point cards being marked with an animal or object, and I'm gonna be honest, this is about all I know. This post is not a comprehensive guide for how to play hanafuda.)

Ayano - May, Iris

Skipping forward a few months, we have Ayano, born May 18th, and using the iris. Every suit, along with having a month associated with it, also has a plant, which is used on every card in the suit. Ayano is pretty much the only reaper who uses her suits flower, rather than an image from a hikari or tane card.

Shiba - June, Butterflies

Born June 21, his noise form is butterflies. Not much to say. I guess I could point out how he's the only of three reapers who wears a symbol of his suit inspiration on his non-noise-form person (necklace). The other two are:

Susukichi - October, Deer

The deer skull is on his tshirt, as well as being able to see a little of his tattoos, which we see later is also a stylized skull and antlers. Birthday matches; October 13th.

Hazuki - December, Phoenix

Ah, the mysterious Haz. The first of our reapers to have a birth month that does not match his hanafuda inspiration. (According to the official guidebook, his birthday is May 5th)While the Phoenix Cantus isn't his noise form, it is mentioned in the secret reports that he is the one responsible for shaping the soul pulvis into that form. Also, like our previous two reapers, he wears his motif on his civilian clothes, in the little phoenix symbols on his jacket. Him being a phoenix is also likely to make him a further foil to Joshua, as they both are the only mythological animals in their respective groups.

Now lets get into the less clear cut ones.

Minamimoto - July, Boar

I know what you're thinking! "Minamimoto isn't a Shinjuku reaper! Also, he isn't a boar, he's a catboy." Undoubtedly true. But he is used caught up in their scheme, purposefully absorbing the soul pulvis and afterwards Leo Cantus manifests with tusks and a snout. What even more interesting is it's very likely his original noise form was a boar as well. But a boar from the chinese zodiac. While he is a lion in the original game, a lion kinda clashes with the Shibuya hierarchy. And between Sho being process-of-elimination the pig, as well as setting up during week two in Pork City. Which could imply that Leo Cantus Armo is a regression to a more berserk and less enlightened state, literally sending Minamimoto back to his roots, before he radicalized and broke away from the Shibuya Reapers.

Kubo - August, Geese

Like Haz, Kubo doesn't have a noise form, but he does have strong narrative ties to the Soul Pulvis, which manifest as a flock of aggressive birds that fly in a V formation. Also, his birthday is August 14.

According to Nomura, Kubo was added late in the writing process. Initially, Nomura wanted to add two characters, but the writer gave him a concerned look, so he settled for just Kubo. Not only is this incredibly funny, we'll be looping back to this.

Hishima - September, Sake Cup

His surname, Sakazuki, is actually the name of the specific sake cup pictured in the September suit. It's the one you see in used in cermonial exchanging of sake, like weddings or yazuka deals. Considering his subplot with Shiba, themes like "brotherhood" and "marriage" are pretty fitting. Once again, the birth month matches: September 7th.

Shoka - November, Swallow

Asterisk. Once again, the cat themed characters of Shibuya have it complicated.

Shoka's birthday is March 30, which is the suit of the cherry blossom. This is further supported by her surname being Sakurane, which was originally made for the protagonist of NEO, to go with Neku's surname being Sakuraba. However the name was given to Shoka as they thought it fit her better. Internally, she is sort of a dual protagonist, being labelled in the data as ch002 and getting billing right after Rindo's actor in the credits.

But her online alias of Swallow points pretty directly to the November suit, and its tane card which features a Swallow. As mentioned earlier, Nomura initially wanted one more Shinjuku reaper character than we end up seeing in the game, so its possible Shoka got some design elements merged together from two different suits so as to not waste any creative material. Or she's just meant to be both and I'm overthinking it.

Kaie - Febuary, Plum Blossom, Warbling White-Eye

We've got ten out of twelve suits catagorized! This, unfortunately, means we are gonna have to start making some guesses.

Kaie's birth month is no help, being November, where Shoka is already using the Swallow symbolism. If we're continuing the tradition of using animal cards, Kaie is either the warbler or the cuckoo. I'm gonna be honest folks, I'm partial to the warbler just because of Kaie's eyebags.

Anyone else see it?

Also, "warbling" could be a a reference to Kaie's preference to not speak, because while he communicates mostly through text, he does have a few voicelines near the end of the game, which shows us his voice is quiet and with a little bit of a stutter. Also, it leaves the last suit open for:

Tsugumi's brother - April, Wisteria, Cuckoo

I bet you thought I forgot about him! Yes, our last suit is the April suit, represented by hanging wisteria and the cuckoo.

Cuckoo's are, for better or for worse, famous for their brood parasitism: a cuckoo will lay its eggs in another birds nest, and when it hatches, the young cuckoo chick will attempt to push all the other eggs out, so it can have the parents sole attention. Tsugumi and her brothers' relationship does not seem anything like that, but it is worth noting that they are only reapers who are related. I think the cuckoo's parasitism is more likely a reference to how her brother was a high-ranking Shinjuku reaper who nonetheless "betrayed" the hierarchy and tried to defy Haz's schemes.

Wisteria is a symbol of love, longevity, and endurance. His final act in death was to protect his sister, ensuring she would survive.

[brainrotandbarnacles]

I gotta wonder how old Clive was when they found out he wasn't the Phoenix. And what things were like for the Rosfields then.

Was Anabella a decent mother to him then? Did she dote on him the way she did Joshua and Olivier? I think she favored her two youngest most because she saw them as an accomplishment she could take pride in, like a beloved trophy or collectible that she worked hard for. Had she seen the same in Clive when he was younger? If they didn't know right away when he was born, Clive must have been 4 at the oldest when they found out he wasn't the Phoenix. To be that little and having a loving and doting mother who all of a sudden hates you must have been devastating.

And what about Elwin? We all know his love for his firstborn never wavered, but if Ana had cared for Clive in those early days, it must have been a near perfect life. To have wealth, status, the promise of a throne, a loving beautiful wife and a darling baby boy would have been a dream come true in a world and time like that. And then they come to find out that Clive isn't the Phoenix, and Ana does a complete 180 and becomes a loathsome, hateful woman in Elwin's eyes. His happy family is shattered all because the mother of his precious child decided he wasn't good enough.

Lastly of course, what about Clive? As an adult he might not have many memories from when he was little, even before Joshua was born, but what about as a teen before the event at Phoenix Gate? Would he go to his little hideaway with Torgal and remember the times when his mother was actually nice to him? Acted like she loved him? Would he long for that Anabella, who would actually look at him with a mother's love and smile at him? Had she ever held him, kissed him, called him her "darling boy"?

I can't decide what would be worse, Clive having a mother who once loved him and then scorned him, or a mother that never loved him at all

[kiloude-city]

So, since it can take a while for dominant powers to manifest (Benna became Garuda at 15 and Barnabas at 18) does that mean that for the first five years of Clive's life, his parents thought he was Phoenix? That before Joshua was born and known to be Phoenix at a young age, Annabella actually "loved" Clive in assuming him to be special? And Clive never held their mothers hatred towards him on his brother, it wasn't either of their faults. It was just hers for being a shitty person.

[cosmic-metanoia]

A Potentially Interesting Friendship

*Spoilers for FFXV & FFXVI :)*

I couldn't help but notice that Noctis (FFXV) and Joshua (FFXVI), while different from each other in terms of motivations and personalities, have a lot in common in terms of their backstories:

*Both are the chosen ones in their respective kingdoms - Noctis as the One True King and Joshua as the future Archduke of Rosaria/the Phoenix's Dominant

*Both lose their fathers suddenly and tragically.

*Both have to deal with their own physical limits as children - Noctis with a knee/leg injury and Joshua with his overall health.

*Both live sheltered lives of royalty until their kingdoms are toppled over.

*Both of their fathers believe in them and their legacies push them to become the leaders that they were born to be.

*Both are gone for a period of time from the public eye - Noctis becomes dormant in the Crystal for 10 years while Joshua is away for 18 years while under the care of the Undying.

*Both emerge from their period of absence better than ever in their glow up era!

*Both sacrifice themselves in order to save humanity.

*Both hate carrots/vegetables (come on, you KNEW this was coming!)

*Both have dedicated retainers that take their own roles VERY seriously and would die for their masters. Ignis for Noctis and Jote for Joshua. (I have a HC where Jote and Ignis would get along and have a mutual understanding between each other regarding their duties. Maybe they'd even offer each other helpful advice on dealing with their stubborn masters, lol!)

It would be interesting to see Noctis and Joshua form a friendship based on the bonding of their mutual struggles and heavy burdens.

[luneariaa]

☀︎ 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 | 𝐣𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐮𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝

❥︎ - ; ɢɴ! ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

❥︎ - 𝐭𝐰 : ɴᴏɴᴇ, ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ꜰʟᴜꜰꜰ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴀᴋɪɴɢ ᴄᴀʀᴇ ᴏꜰ ꜱɪᴄᴋ ᴊᴏꜱʜᴜᴀ 🧡

❥︎ - 𝐚/𝐧 : ʀᴇqᴜᴇꜱᴛᴇᴅ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴡᴀᴛᴛᴘᴀᴅ,, ᴅᴇᴄɪᴅᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴘᴏꜱᴛ ʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀꜱ ᴡᴇʟʟ 🧡

☾︎ - 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭.

-✰-

"Joshua, you mustn't push yourself too hard. You should take a rest, as you are still sick as ever." You scolded the Dominant of Phoenix, shaking your head slightly in disapproval.

It's your task as his personal attendant, or a caregiver of some sort after all; ever since his childhood years.

Though this is like a normal occurrence for the both of you, you still couldn't help it-- always worried over his natural born sickly condition.

A soft sigh escapes from your lips as you put the leftover food and medicines away after you've made sure he has taken them.

Joshua merely smiles reassuringly at you. "You worry too much. If I were to rest almost all the time, I would never get anything done."

His tone clearly shows that he's gotten used to it, and is perfectly fine by this point.

"Besides, I got you here with me, don't I?" He lightly refers to you with no hint of anger or even annoyance whatsoever. "Even if I do push myself too hard, you'd be there to scold me back to reality."

His last sentence genuinely earned an amused look from you, at least a bit; smirking slightly with your head turned away.

"Josh, come on now," you merely chuckled, finally giving him your full attention.

"While your point is completely valid, that doesn't stop me from worrying about you."

A gentle smile adorns upon his handsome face, now holding onto the eye contact as well with a certain fondness being apparent.

And it's completely reasonable, since the both of you have basically stuck up with each other for uncountable years; ever since his childhood years alone.

While you are like, a year or two years younger than he is, you always do your tasks dutifully without a single complaint. Well, unless you needed to. But aside from that, you never did.

"You always tend to my needs even when I didn't really need them. You even brought me books to read with, or even when my Father was away."

"I don't know what I'd do without you."

His ocean-blue eyes wandered out and onto the bright afternoon sky as he spoke those words; reminiscing the old times that have surely passed.

Several birds have even landed on the windowsill of the currently open window-- their' heads tilted adorably for a few seconds, before flying away once again to join their group of friends someplace.

You turned your head to spare him a glance, now noticing that his previous smile was gone, yet still somehow distracted in his own cloud of thoughts.

You even took the opportunity to simply stare at his handsome side profile, though it only lasted for a few minutes or less as you didn't want to be seen as improper. Even more regarding to the clear difference in rankings between you both.

He did notice the stare that you've given him but decided not to say anything, or even choose to not mention anything. After all, it did not once make him feel uncomfortable in some way.

His beautiful, ocean-blue eyes found their way to your figure once more, seeing that you've now seated on one of the vacant chairs nearby while averting your gaze toward outside the window as well.

"You know," he grins a bit as he starts on. "I remember back then; when you stood inside the library, perhaps checking and dusting off some of the old books for Father, and you were so focused that you didn't notice my presence."

"It's quite funny that you screamed a little, even jumping in surprise when you finally noticed me."

An annoyed look became visible from the moment those words left his mouth. Baffled, even.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I didn't notice you that time-! Besides, I didn't even jump that high.." You muttered under your breath as your cheeks became pinkish in pure embarrassment at the old memory.

"It's adorable actually." He chuckles again, this time most likely directed at the current expression you're making.

With your cheeks being puffed out in response to his teasing, you grabbed the cushion that was settled on the sofa and threw one at him; still out of embarrassment.

The cushion did end up hitting him straight on the face, yet he only laughs it off at your actions alone.

"Just know that I could tease you all day if I could."

But you knew better-- you couldn't even stay annoyed at him no matter how hard you tried to be. And he's completely aware of it.

In the end, you've simply given up and decided to laugh along as well. All the while that it happened, Joshua just fell in love more deeply with you than he ever did in the process.

It's just a matter of time whether he admits his feelings for you or decides to go against it.

𝐞𝐧𝐝.

-✰-

@ 𝚌𝚊𝚜𝚜.

[assassinshadowgirl]

Final Fantasy 16 AU Draft

Same as the Prologue; Annabelle the bitch betrayed her Nation, slewed her husband and offered Clive to the Holy Empire of Sanbreque.

Dion came to learn about what happened at the Phoenix Gate from his Dragoons and strongly despised Annabelle for her actions. He later became devastated when his Father announced his marriage to her and Annabelle will be Dion's stepmother from now on.

Dion refused to acknowledge her. Furthermore noticed that his Father Sylvestre Lesage, Emperor of the Holy Empire began to act distant towards him ever since that woman stepped into their homeland.

Feeling lonely and neglected, Dion wandered into the basement where he met Clive now a Branded, sitting alone at a fireplace. Both recognized each other. Soon they were sitting together, chatting.

With Clive's mother married to Dion's father, the young blonde Prince joked that they are considered half siblings. He then went ahead to tell Clive about his father's cold treatment and Annabelle's disdain towards him. Clive understands how Dion feels as he's also the same as him. They grew close immediately.

Dion visits Clive everyday. To protect his brother from mistreatment as a Branded, Dion proposed a plan; He asked if Clive is willing to be his bodyguard so both can watch each other's back. Clive agreed.

Thirteen years later, Clive served as Dion's bodyguard, and assisted the Prince in the war against Waloed Kingdom and its Dominant Odin.

During rest, Dion admitted honestly that he's growing weary of this war and much more concerned for his people's safety instead. Both Clive and Dion knew the Emperor was getting more cold hearted due to someone who was clearly being the one responsible for all these happenings. It got even worse ever since Olivier was born.

For the past years, Sylvestre had treated Dion more of a war weapon than a son. He only showed his affection towards Annabelle's child making Dion feel even more lonelier. However Clive was always by his side as a brother and only friend.

Suddenly a group of Imperial Soldiers under Annabelle's rule barged into the camp, issued an arrest warrant on Dion for his treachery against the Holy Empire. The Prince was utterly confused by this sudden accusation that he never committed. Before the guards could take him away, Clive attacked and with help from a few Dragoons, Clive and Dion escaped.

They were later rescued by Cid. Clive was reunited with his trusty hound, Torgal. And both were warmly welcomed into the hideaway.

From Cid, they learnt about the Ice Dominant Shiva being used by the Iron Kingdom for war and agreed to work together with Cid to rescue her.

Clive was later shocked to find out that Shiva was actually Jill, his long lost childhood friend whom he introduced her to Dion and they instantly got along with. Jill was grateful to Dion for taking care of Clive for 13 years.

Dion, now a fugitive as well as an exiled Prince, along with Clive, Jill and Torgal decided to work alongside with Cid as Outlaws to make a better world for the Branded and others.

The following will be them encountering Benedikta, Hugo, learning about Ultima's existence, Clive being the Mythos that possesses an unique ability to absorb other Eikons' abilities, reuniting with Joshua, fighting against Barbanas and Harbard etc.

During their journeys and hardships, they evaded Annabelle's Imperial guards who were tasked to hunt Dion and bring him back to Sanbrequec against his will while Clive was being hunted by Ultima to become his vessel.

Clive, Dion, Joshua, Jill and Torgal protect each other's back as they journeyed together.

That's that. If there are people out there who want to use this idea for their fanfics, are welcome to go ahead but pls do give credits lol. 😂

[gottamusethemall]

Headcanons about XVI (Lotta spoilers)

Personal headcanons about XVI will be below the cut cause of length and spoilers. 

The first person that Ultima used as a puppet was none other than Anabella. Despite all her concern for Joshua and relative lack of concern for Clive, Anabella didn’t bother to ensure whether or not Joshua was alive. Joshua’s body was probably buried underneath the rubble, and he was presumed dead. Clive was only noticed because he was out in the open. There was no shortage of ways to get Branded Soldiers, so there wasn’t a particular need for Anabella to let Clive live, but Ultima ensured that Mythos survived. 

The connection between Anabella and Ultima would also explain the Masked Man’s appearance at Phoenix Gate during Clive’s initial awakening. The Masked Man is assumed to be Sleipnir, someone that is capable of moving around swiftly without drawing suspicion to their absence elsewhere. Cid probably served with Waloed during this time. 

Ironically, there is a point of similarity between all the dominants. They are all beings of remarkably strong will, though their goals differ. Joshua and Clive have the strongest wills, which is why they are the two fires that are the cornerstone, but Clive’s time as Joshua’s first shield makes his will stronger, which is why he is Ifrti’s Dominant. 

Clive is able to absorb the eikon from the other dominants when their wills are weak enough. Normally, a dominant is fiercely opposed to surrending their Eikon. However, when a Dominant’s will is broken, normally associated with a feeling of weakness that can be impressed or generated, then the Eikon can be withdrawn from them. 

It is assumed that Ultima can decide who will become a dominant. This is because the Eikons are all seen looking at Ultima, so he is of a higher power than the Eikons. Knowing that he will want as many Eikons as possible to ensure that Mythos will have as much power as possible. Therefore, Leviathan’s dominant is somewhere. 

While Ultima can choose who will be a dominant, he cannot keep track of where those dominants all are. This is presented when the masked man says ‘We have found you.’ For Leviathan, it would make sense that a group that is mostly unknown could hold the Dominant of Leviathan and Ultima wouldn’t be any the wiser. 

While Jote is my initial decision of the last Dominant, Mid is actually my second choice. Both are strong-willed and are not in the place where they are thought to be. Expecting that Mid may have been sent to Kanver while Cid was with Waloed, would make Ultima aware through Barnabas, which is why I believe it’s Jote. 

[phoenix-flamed]

I'd say I'm going to try not to ramble, but that would be pointless, because tbh I think best and most clearly when I'm writing things out. So this post is probably going to be long. (But it's mostly for myself, to reference for writing my dumb(affectionate) blorbo!)

I'm going to try and keep Ultimania stuff to a minimum, aside from regarding timeline stuff, in order to not go insane over the contradictions. This is also me kind of revisiting some other headcanons I had about his parents, and revising them; most notably who the fuck was on the throne before Elwin took it.

Thank you to @warofthebeasts , @stingslikeabee , and @lured-into-wonderland for all of your help! You guys are absolute lifesavers!

Okay, I'm going to try not to flub up these ranks and titles, but there is like a 99.9% chance that I'll do it anyway because I'm cobbling this together through a combination of research and ??????? over the fact that XVI seems to also have cobbled these things together to a degree, at least with regards to Rosaria.

Let me start off by saying my headcanons aren't meant to be 1:1 to the real world. Also that a big thing I haven't been taking into account so far with my other headcanons and portrayal is that you're born into a rank, but you are given a title. I uh, I honestly hadn't even thought of that. Oops.

(In my defense, I never said I was good at this sort of thing.)

Anywho. Okay, so, in terms of real life titles, an Archduke/Archduchess is pretty on par with a king/queen, but below an Emperor/Empress, I think? (You win this round, Sylvestre.) Does this hold true in XVI? I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised, all things considered.

The Grand Duchy of Rosaria is, obviously, a bit different from the Holy Empire. Originally, Rosaria was a series of individual nations -- but they joined together to create one unified front, forming the duchy that we all know and love. For my headcanons, the governing body is comprised of representatives from the Seven High Houses; the representatives of each one is the current head of the particular noble house, with House Rosfield being the main house and royalty. Each of these High Houses were the ruling families of the nations that joined with House Rosfield to form the Grand Duchy of Rosaria, so they're a pretty big deal.

I can't stress enough that these families each have a heavy presence in Rosaria's political matters and decisions. The Archduke/Archduchess doesn't rule on their own. I like to go with the idea that the Rosfield on the throne has the final say, but they still have to consult and work together with the other High House representatives.

Kind of like Parliament's House of Lords, in short. Or something.

Then you have the court as a whole, which according to Elwin's will, was pretty fractured by the end of Elwin's reign. And I mean, it does make sense -- you have eight people(the spouse of the one on the throne included in there) trying to push their own ideas. There are going to be disagreements, there's bound to be tension, and there are bound to be those among the court who support the monarch -- and those who support the other political figures. This is the case for the Rosfields, if Elwin's will is any indication. He had enemies within the court at the time of the will's writing, and that isn't even including the issues that cropped up regarding the rumors of Clive's true lineage when Joshua awakened as the Dominant of Phoenix instead.

And considering Anabella herself opposed many of Elwin's decisions, views, and ideals, of course there would be others who felt the same way as her, especially when you factor in that many of Elwin's ambitions for the future would shake up the societal hierarchy.

There was something I was puzzling over, before Kevin helped me out and bapped me over the head to get me to stop overthinking. When Clive was removed from the immediate line of succession by Elwin to try and spare him from the court's bullshittery(at least, according to the Ultimania), he was given the title of "Marquess", as demonstrated in the game by people addressing him when he's younger as... well, "Lord Marquess." In contrast to Joshua being referred to as, "Your Highness" at Phoenix Gate by Sir Wade. So my headcanon has been that Elwin removed him from the line of succession to basically yes, spare him from not only having to deal with the court jeering at Clive and making the poor boy's life a living hell as he grew up, but also so that Clive wouldn't have to deal with them going on to make his life a living hell when he took the throne as well. While I was digging around, I found something to tack onto this headcanon -- that the reason why Elwin did this was not just to avoid Clive getting slammed by backlash from the nobility and Anabella, but also because given that the governing body consists of the other heads of the High Houses as well, they could try and call into question Clive's right to rule due to the rumors and claims that he's an illegitimate child of Elwin's.

Obviously, this is a default for my blog, but if any Clive RPers have different ideas, or want this omitted in interactions with them, please let me know!

As for my Elwin's parents... Okay, I concede, Rosaria is probably male-dominated, at least in terms of the ruling family. The statues of former rulers, at least the ones that we're able to see in the artbook's artwork, are all male. The emphasis is usually on "Archduke"s, even when it comes to mentioning the custom of the Archduke gifting something to the ducal scions when they come of age. So what's my headcanon for why, in the Ultimania, Elwin's parents are both referred to as "Arch"? Archduke, Archduchess? Weeeeell. Odds are that yeah, Elwin's dad was 99.9% likely the one "officially" on the throne. Even in the bedroom scene between Anabella and Elwin, Anabella's like, "you are your father's firstborn son" or something along those lines, so the emphasis is, again, always on the males. But on top of all of these other thoughts and headcanons, I also totally headcanon now that Elwin's parents were joint rulers. They ruled as one. While his father, Alden, was off fighting and dealing with crap away from Rosalith, his mother -- Willow -- was wholly the one on the throne. She ruled in his place, and when they were wed after Alden took the throne, Alden gave Willow the title of Archduchess. This really doesn't change much of anything at all about my headcanons for those two and their relationship + dynamic, in retrospect...

I still headcanon that Alden died first, then Willow died a few years after Elwin took the throne, since the translated Ultimania doesn't mention her except one time, and that's in this sentence: "Since then, while performing official duties as the eldest son of the Grand Duchess, he traveled with Murdoch to various parts of the Wind Continent to deepen his knowledge." So I'm taking creative liberties on that one.

The fact that Willow and Alden were ruling as one is still what gave my Elwin the impression -- and hope -- that he and Anabella would be like that, too. Ruling together as one, always on the same page. A team, through and through. Unfortunately, he was a bit too idealistic on that front(as he was with most things), because what his parents had together is probably not as common as one would hope. Even though Elwin very much views Anabella as his equal, their opinions, views, etc. are too drastically different for that sort of thing.

I don't remember if I covered everything I'd wanted to cover. Er. Well, if I think of anything else, I'll jot it down in another, hopefully less ridiculously long post.

[dumbsmoothie]

Fun Fact: Eir's son actually has a "canon" name in From the Ashes! I treat the one-shots as alternate branches in One's Duty's story, but I try to keep some details more vague in case people prefer to only read them or treat them as a standalone, self-insert story.

In that route, the Undying had been reeling from the loss of the Phoenix. For Jote, the feeling had hit twofold--not only had she lost the lord who she had pledged her life to since childhood but also a dear friend who she hadn’t completely been able to stop pining for. She had prioritized comforting Eir, because she cares deeply for her and knew that Joshua would have done his best to make her smile again. Jote managed her own sadness by speaking with the one who had also worked closely alongside Joshua for the majority of his life--Cyril.

"The Phoenix may be gone and perhaps never to return, but from the ashes that followed those final, brilliant flames will surely rise a world worthy of such sacrifice," he had recited as if he had told himself that many times over. "It shall now be our duty to do all that we can to ensure its survival in his stead." Jote had felt lost ever since Joshua had gently released her from servitude. Those words resonated with her, and so she shared them with Eir as well. Rather than continue to wallow in sadness and regret, Eir gradually began thinking of the future. When her son was born, she recalled those words once more and decided on the name Ashton. Jote had been curious and asked why she had chosen that name. Eir released a tired giggle and said that he had been a big bird that flung fire everywhere, so there would have been a ton of ash. Jote had felt surprisingly relieved to hear that her terrible naming sense hadn't changed at all; it was as if it were confirmation that she had returned to her previous self.

Despite Eir ultimately being unable to marry Joshua, both Byron and Clive immediately welcomed Ashton as a Rosfield. When Eir had accepted Byron's offer to live with him, he began referring to her as a Rosfield as well. "I am not enough of an old fool to have been blind to the signs that you would have become one in due time," Byron had said with a jolly laugh as he had patted her on the shoulder. Both Byron and Jote began fussing over her in confusion when Eir had started crying--after having lost so much throughout the years, being so openly accepted into Joshua's family had filled her with an immense sense of relief, happiness, and a sense of belonging.

[speargifted]

//i keep wondering about the phoenix awakening

Clive was only 5 when Joshua was born, I wonder if they already knew then that Clive wasn't the dominant. Dion woke as an infant, but Bena was 15 and the way Cid talks about his sounds like he was an adult by the time he found out he was Ramuh - so that is a span of time, from literal baby to potentially adulthood

I wonder if Anabella loved Clive when he was little. I wonder if that hatred comes from perceived betrayal, that the child she put effort into didn't wake into the Phoenix like she had hoped

And then the question of. It seems generally that a stressful enough experience can force an awakening. Wouldn't it be fucked up if Rosaria puts their infant heirs through terrifying trials

Potentially theres a way to determine if a child is a dominant, but its implied that even non dominants of a dominant bloodlines are unique from other people - and Clive is a dominant. Are they just taking babies to phoenix gate and seeing if they can open a door

[aesadraws]

please please please tell me abt tangled au 👀

WIP File Game

About: PFK Tangled AU

Oooooh boy. This one was born from rewatching Tangled awhile back and my brain making a connection between Eugene's persona of the criminal Flynn Rider and that popular idea of Joshua actively fighting back against the empire of Sanbreque under the moniker Margrace. Plus I found it so funny to imagine Terence chasing after Joshua the outlaw only to eventually come to care for him. It's not a shot-for-shot re-telling of the disney film but there are plenty of elements I'm planning to incorporate, mostly because they're fun.

Our cast:

Dion as our Rapunzel, granted the blessing of Bahamut as a child. After Sanbreque was "attacked" by Rosarian forces Sylvestre sought to protect his most valuable asset and had Dion locked away in a tower, to be tended to solely by his stepmother Anabella. He still takes to the battlefield as Bahamut (though I'm imaging just semi-primed for this fic) but he knows to return straight to the castle after just in case someone were to try and assassinate him.

Joshua as the aforementioned outlaw Margrace, his true identity unknown. Believed to have died when Sanbreque "righteously" attacked the ducal family at Phoenix Gate. Only the Undying he works with knows that he was also granted a blessing of one of the EIkons, saving him from being stillborn at birth.

Terence is essentially Maximus, but not a horse (he's no Sleipnir lmao). He's a loyal imperial soldier that has kept up a clandestine relationship with Dion, climbing the tower through its secret entrance. He also wholeheartedly believes in the imperial propaganda that Rosaria's insurgents need to be put down, at least until he eventually learns Joshua's side of the story.

There's not a whole lot of secondary cast beyond Sylvestre, Anabella, and Clive making key appearances. There's implications that Joshua is working with Cid as well as the Undying, which becomes helpful when Joshua tries to free his brother from having been stuck as a gladiator in Oriflamme.

I have the vast majority of this fic outlined except for the climax and ending, hence why it's still low down in my priorities until I get that banged out. But I know I'll enjoy a few scenes in particular when I get to it, including: fun banter between Joshua and Terence while the one chases after the other, Joshua being incredibly bitter upon seeing his mother again, and quite a few moments of heavy angst (with a happy ending, because c'mooon this is me we're talking about).

[sapphire-weapon]

In an attempt to organize all of my thoughts and finally get this shit out of my system, I wrote up a complete, comprehensive listing of all of the things I loved about Final Fantasy XVI, all the things I hated about it, and all of the things that were equal parts good and bad.

Massive spoilers abound here. Hopefully, by the end of it, it’s easier to understand why I’m so stuck on this game and why I can’t really settle on a firm opinion of it being good or bad. 

FFXVI is an excellent game, except for all of the ways that it sucks.

BAD

- Some quality of life issues. The inability to pull up the world map from town or the middle of a zone was huge for me. Having to fast-travel to an obelisk to go to the actual exit of a zone just to go somewhere else was an extra unnecessary step that didn't need to happen. The inability to switch your button inputs was obnoxious, too, and hitting R1 to dodge never came to feel natural. I also hated that I couldn't turn off certain elements of the HUD. Just little things like that, here and there.

- The treatment of female characters leaves a lot to be desired in this game. There are only four major, named female characters in this game: Jill, Anabella, Benedikta, and Mid. The only one who didn't get cheated/fucked over by a lack of care from the writers was Mid -- and, wouldn't you know it, she has the smallest role of the four of them.

I'll go into the whole thing with Jill when we talk about her character specifically, but Anabella is basically like "what if Cersei Lannister was explicitly a Nazi and then, instead of having a dynamic character arc, she just killed herself?" Anabella's entire character motivation is literally just "because eugenics" -- and, as a result, basically all of her character dialogue is centered around that point. The game never goes into who she is as a person outside of being a Nazi bitch. She has one interesting conversation with Clive towards the end of her role where she surprises the audience (and Clive himself) by saying "It should've been you [, not Joshua, to be Phoenix's Dominant]! Why couldn't it have been you?" but then the conversation gets cut off because the Bahamut fight has to happen now.

And the one window of opportunity where it looked like her character was going to get deeper -- when she looks at Joshua and yells "I will not let you take me, shadow!" and makes us think that maybe she's not actually a Nazi and has been Ultima's thrall since maybe before Clive was even born? Instead of going into it, she just kills herself and then is never mentioned again outside of "hey remember that time when mom" stories.

Benedikta didn't fare much better. She was actually a really great character with a fantastic role back when the theme of the game was still "the consequence of unchecked power and anger in the blind pursuit of vengeance" -- but as soon as the game decides it's suddenly not going to be about that anymore because fuck you, you kind of just have to look back on Benedikta and ask "What was the point of her, actually?"

And Mid, again, is fine -- but she also doesn't do a whole lot. She's your token engineer/genki girl character rolled up into one. Think X's Rikku but with more actual charisma/likeability and no battle prowess so she never actually joins your party. And she doesn't even come in until halfway through the game.

And that's it, that's your female cast. There are other side characters like Charon and Vivian -- and Charon is great for a myriad of reasons -- but they're still just minor side characters.

- Eikon battles. I know that this is going to be the most contentious thing I say in this write-up, so let me just say that I am already aware that this is actually mostly a me problem. For whatever reason, my particular blend of astigmatism and ADHD made it almost impossible for me to follow anything that was happening on screen during an Eikon fight, with the exception of Garuda and Titan. Everything else was just too much happening all at once. And the very final Eikon fight you do? I could not make heads or tails of ANYTHING I was looking at because of the color palette, and I just kind of had to mash buttons and hope for the best.

But that's the only part of it that's a me problem. the rest of it is legitimate criticism. We need to talk about all the stupid bullshit that actually happens in those fights.

We need to talk about the fact that Phoenix and Ifrit did the fusion dance in outer space while fighting Bahamut. Because that shit almost made me turn the game off and never turn it back on again.

I don't care that it happened, necessarily. I care how it happened. That whole time, I just kept repeating in my head "thirteen years. Clive thought Joshua was dead for thirteen years. THIRTEEN YEARS. THIR.TEEN.YEARS. HE HAD REGULAR TRAUMA FLASHBACKS ABOUT IT. HE ALMOST KILLED HIMSELF OVER IT. AND THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING ON MY SCREEN RIGHT NOW BEFORE THEY'VE EVEN SAID HELLO"

The entire game is so serious and grounded and somber and gritty, but the second an Eikon fight starts, it's suddenly Dragon Ball Z, and we're expected to just go with it. And I mean, I love Dragon Ball Z. I've been in that fandom for over 25 fuckin years. But the Eikon battles were so tonally dissonant from the rest of the game that it was immersion-breaking and jarring every single time. Clive and Joshua actually have the dialogue exchange of "What can we do against that kind of power?" "We'll just have to believe in our own." before even having the "holy shit you're alive" conversation.

THIRTEEN YEARS.

THIRTEEN FUCKING YEARS.

I can't. It was awful. But this also ties into...

- The story/story structure in general. I've talked about this before. Used the analogy "if you took the cast of Uncharted and put them into Indigo Prophecy" but I've actually thought of one better. FFXVI is like a version of Silent Hill 2 where, halfway through the game, James reunited with Mary because she wasn't actually dead at all, and then the two of them teamed up to fight god. But then she died for real right before the ending. But then she came back again after, so it's still fine, actually.

That's Final Fantasy XVI.

The entire first half of the game is a red herring. It's bullshit. It's garbage. Throw it in the trash and forget about it, because the game sure as fuck did. FFXVI sets itself up to be a game about the person that Clive has chosen to become in the wake of his horrible trauma in a world that has taken so much from him. Then, at about the halfway point, the game goes "jk that horrible thing that Clive's entire personality has been shaped around never actually happened" and all of Clive's trauma symptoms literally disappear and are never brought up or alluded to ever again. Now, suddenly, the game is not about his personal quest of self-discovery -- but rather is now just Diet Supernatural: a story about the bond between two brothers who have to face off against god and defy their own fate.

cool.

And Clive and Joshua never talk about it. There's never a "hey what have you been up to for the past eighteen years?" conversation. No. After their super short-lived tearful reunion, they just immediately start interacting as though the two of them have always been together and they both know each other super well inside and out, despite the fact that the last time Clive saw Joshua, Joshua was eight fucking years old. And now he's a 26-year-old twink who's carrying an eldritch horror around in his chest and who lowkey wants to fuck Cid's daughter and is possibly bisexual and also wants to fuck Dion. And the last time Joshua saw Clive, Clive was a fifteen-year-old Good Boy who was a proper role model and just wanted to be loved and noticed. And now he's a 33-year-old former serial killer (and the "former" part is even questionable) who killed literally hundreds of men and then tried to kill himself in an attempt to avenge the murder of Joshua, which never actually fucking happened.

coolcoolcool.

I hate this fucking game.

But I also love it.

GOOD

+ The game gave me on-screen naked Clive not one, not two, but three different times. And of those three times, two of them ended up being sexual in nature. And the other one is uh... him naked and in chains, screaming and cursing and crying. thank u Yoshi-P. thank u.

+ Every character that's not listed on the "both good & bad" list, but I need to give a special shout-out to:

+ Ultima as a villain. His general vibe gave me the heebies in a way vidya villains haven't in a long time. His character design is phenomenal, his voice actor knocked it out of the park, and he has just enough of a background that you get where he's coming from, but it's not so over-explained that you wind up wanting to take his side instead (which has been a pitfall of Final Fantasy games in the past)

+ Music/sound design is excellent

+ This game is a graphical marvel. There's no disputing it.

+ Maps are a perfect size and make the world feel real

+ Worldbuilding is probably the best I've seen in a Final Fantasy title, if not in video games in general. Every nation in Valisthea felt distinct. Every location was fully thought-out, had its own history, and made sense. This is the only game that I have ever, in my 33 years of life, actually walked around every single town instead of running. I was that immersed in the world.

+ The combat system -- though I would technically list this as "good but with room for improvement." I disagree with Ryota Suzuki's opinion that this is the best combat system he's ever made. It's not. DMC5 is better by leaps and bounds. If FFXVI had an expanded abilities section that allowed you to put points into getting new moves and different regular melee combos (in addition to all of the Eikon abilities that are already there), then the combat would be Suzuki's best made. It's still great, don't get me wrong. But as someone who came into this game with a Devil May Cry background, my only options for regular attacks being Square, Triangle, Square+Triangle, Square+X and then nothing else was... lacking. Give me more of Nero's moveset, and that's the winning formula right there.

BOTH GOOD & BAD

Jill Warrick + fantastic concept, design, acting, and dialogue - underbaked and shoehorned backstory - shoved out of the story at basically the zero hour to make room for a male character

Personality-wise, Jill is one of the strongest-written women in Final Fantasy. Full stop. She stands shoulder-to-shoulder with greats like Aeris and Yuna in the sense that she feels like a real person with her own strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, vulnerabilities, courage, causes that she fights for, moral lines she won't cross, etc. etc. Very rarely does she just feel like an extension of Clive, or like she's only there to service his character arc/characterization (except towards the end, but we'll get to that later). She's likeable and consistent, and the game does a good job of making you want to be with her. I love her, and I want to be her when I grow up, but until then, I'll settle for just being her friend and braiding her hair at sleepovers.

Unfortunately, Jill's greatness pretty much only extends to her personality. They tried to give her a war criminal background, but the writers didn't really seem to care about it too much. She has an entire gameplay sequence/arc dedicated to her trying to confront/settle her war criminal past, but the game never really goes into what, actually and specifically, she did? Sure, she was put out onto the battlefield and killed a lot of soldiers, but she keeps referring to "horrible things" that she's had to do, and the game never decides to tell us what those horrible things actually were.

We're told that the guy who was keeping her captive also did horrible things -- worse things than Jill, herself, even had to do -- but we don't get to learn what these things are, either. We see him about to human sacrifice two kids, but is that really all it was? Child murder? Honey, it's war. Child murder happens. From the way Jill talks about it, it sounds more like horribly violent sexual assault and gruesome, drawn-out torture, but... shrug, I guess. We'll never know. We're not allowed to know. All we're allowed to know is that Jill just has to kill him, and then her past will be settled. So she kills him. And then her past is settled.

And she has to settle her past so that she can feel justified in standing at Clive's side until the end of his fight... but then she's not allowed to do that. Because the story is so shitty.

At the halfway mark, when the game stops being about Clive's journey of self-discovery and starts being strictly about ~brothers~, Jill gets shoved out of the story in order to make room for Joshua to step in. The game uses the contrivance of Clive taking Shiva from her in order to justify Jill's disappearance from the narrative, but there's two big fucking problems with that:

1. Dion had Bahamut taken from him by Clive, too, and yet he still retained his Eikon powers because he just believed in himself really hard -- and we have no reason to believe that Dion's will is any stronger than Jill's. Jill went through an entire arc of making sure she was able to stand as Clive's equal, and then... nope. 2. You can re-recruit Jill into your party in order to do sidequests and explore the world with her before leaving for the final Ultima battle, and she still uses all of her fucking ice powers.

So, there's no actual reason for her to be excluded from shit other than "shut up it's about brothers now." The game even has the audacity to have Joshua say to Clive "we need to remind Jill that she's still one of us." How about this, Joshua? How about Clive and Jill should be the ones reminding you that you're one of them, since you only came into this story halfway through it and didn't actually build up a bond with either of them in adulthood like they did with each other???

Truly, horrendously awful. Jill should've been at that Ultima fight, and I will die on this hill.

Dion Lesage + INCREDIBLY compelling story overall + excellent emotional pull, strong personality + best gay rep I've ever seen in a game, I think. the fact that he's gay is actually the least interesting thing about him. - does not get enough screentime for how important his character is

I'mma just say it. Final Fantasy XVI should have been a deuteragonst setup akin to Yakuza 0 where you swap back and forth between Clive and Dion, because Dion is way too important to the story to get as little attention and screentime as he does. His struggle with being the only person with any power still in the Empire who has a sense of integrity is super interesting, as is his inner conflict of trying to reconcile who his father used to be vs who he's become. Dion Lesage answers the question nobody asked of "What if Faramir of Gondor was a gay dragon who actually staged a coup?" And it's just excellent. His frustration and his anger paired with his sense of justice and empathy makes him so incredibly compelling.

And even after the political side of the story winds down in the wake of the chaos and bullshit that's being wreaked on the Ultima side of things, Dion is still crucial to the plot. Clive could not have won against Ultima without Dion. And to not go into that more -- to not go further into Dion's drive to continue moving forward, or his vision for the Empire and the world and what he personally feels like he owes to humanity and how all of these pieces fit together -- is so disappointing. There's an obvious emotional void where more of Dion's character story should be.

If we do ever get DLC for this game, the very first thing we should get is a Dion DLC.

Joshua Rosfield + just an absolute delight of a character personality, probably one of my favorites in the whole game + interesting concept - has absolutely no business being in the story at all past the tutorial

I don't normally like Joshua's character archetype. "Somber, mystical twink" has never been a type to do it for me.

But Joshua is incredible -- because they actually allow him to be more than just his archetype. Most times, the somber, mystical twink is only every allowed to be somber and mystical. That character's role is to be the arbitrary keeper of magic bullshit. You're meant to want to protect them, but they don't have a whole lot going on beyond that particular purpose. But Joshua is allowed to joke and laugh and be angry and romantic -- just be an actual person.

One of the best scenes in the game is when he hauls off and just decks Clive right in the face. It's so shocking in the best way possible. He's not angry because of plot reasons getting in the way of his somber, mystical bullshit. He's angry because his brother pissed him off -- because, sometimes, people do shit that just pisses you off. And for tiny little twink Joshua to not use magic, but to just rear back and swing at the 250+lb slab of beef that is Clive and shout at him for being an asshole just felt so real and so human, and I felt so connected to him in that moment.

And the scene where he and Mid meet for the first time -- fantastic. Incredible. Amazing. Wouldn't have changed a single thing about it. Especially when Mid goes around giving everyone hugs later on and she kind of hesitates before actually committing to hugging Joshua. Love it.

Joshua is a character that is full of very pleasant surprises that make him feel multifacted and real. And so, when he does do his somber, mystical bullshit -- I actually cared and found it interesting. I found myself rooting for him and invested in the things he was learning and how he was piecing it all together. I was super into his secret hunt for Ultima and the fact that he was housing an eldritch horror in his chest.

There's only one big problem with Joshua: his continued existence in the story makes the entire narrative shit. And that's not his fault. But it is the reality.

I love Joshua Rosfield. I would fucking go out with him if he asked. I would give him his own game if I could.

But he should've never been written or allowed to exist, for all of the reasons I listed in the story section of the "bad" column.

And that just fucking sucks.

Clive Rosfield + I love him, your honor + I absolutely love him + I want him to make tender love to me in the black of night under a full moon as the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the sand fills in the empty space around us, just as he did with Jill - his entire character concept gets fucking deleted at the halfway mark of the story and is never seen or referenced again

Clive is special. He's the best example of positive masculinity this side of Kazuma Kiryu. He's not just a power fantasy; he's a caretaker and a brother and a son and a friend and a boyfriend. He cries visible tears on-screen at least half a dozen times in this game. He's allowed to be vulnerable in a lot of different ways. He's willing to say the words "I love you" in front of other people. His cries for help are genuine and real -- when Clive talks about suicide, he means it.

But he's also a killer. And he's myopic. And stubborn. And ruthless. Clive is a self-centered man who doesn't actually care about himself at all, and he tends to warp the world around him in his destructive selfishness. And I say all of this as praise for his character, by the way.

Both versions of him are great -- tortured Clive and brother Clive.

The issue is that there's two versions of him, and there really shouldn't be.

I won't keep beating the dead horse that is FFXVI forgetting what its own story is about and completely changing course halfway through, but the character that suffers most because of that decision is Clive. If you connected with him as a fellow trauma survivor, you're going to feel very alienated by him in the latter half of the game when he's suddenly not anymore.

I'm not saying that Clive should've been in a constant state of trauma throughout the entire game -- I'm saying that all of his trauma symptoms shouldn't have just disappeared and been forgotten about. Even with Joshua returned to him, that doesn't undo the damage that he sustained over the course of thirteen years of his life. Or, at least, it shouldn't. That's exactly what happens in the story, but it shouldn't be that way. The fact that he never even had a line akin to "I can't lose you again" when he's holding Joshua's lifeless body at the end was mindblowing. Clive didn't blame himself or hearken back to any of that old hurt at all, and I don't know how no one on the entire dev team didn't point this out. Because, as a result of that, his reaction to Joshua's death doesn't feel sincere.

It almost feels like the devs had two different versions of the game written up -- one where Joshua stayed dead the whole time, and one where he was never meant to have been dead at all -- and then they mashed the two of them together for the final product. As a result, Clive actually feels like two distinctly different characters sometimes. There's not an obvious throughline for him that there is with someone like, say, Cloud, who also had to go through a similar journey of trauma processing.

Again: both versions of Clive are great. But he should only have been one character with one continuous arc; not two different character concepts rolled into one.

Clive & Jill's romance + built up slowly and carefully over time; the bond feels real + very real in the sense that they're both in their 30s and are still just kind of aimlessly trying at a relationship, but not really sure where to go or how to get there + Jill's love for Clive literally saves his life during the ending - their romance is the excuse the writers used to delete Jill's importance in the story towards the end

Because of the way that the story plays out, it almost comes off like Jill's entire purpose was to build up a romance with Clive and nothing else. Like, they have a whole game's worth of bonding and development and all that other fun shit -- but the second she finally sleeps with him, she's out of the story. She's done.

I trust I don't have to explain why that's a problem.

So, they have this weird thing going on where they are simultaneously the best and the worst romance in Final Fantasy. The building of their relationship is incredible; the way that they bond and interact is organic and genuine. And they even actually get to be an actual couple in this game, which, to my knowledge, didn't really happen in any other Final Fantasy. They don't just have the one Big Romantic Kiss; they have several over the course of a pretty wide swath of time. Clive takes Jill out on a date and asks her where she wants the relationship to go. Like, actual real boyfriend shit happens.

It just happens at the expense of Jill's relevance in the narrative -- which just straight-up isn't fair.

Oh, and if you're not sure what I mean about Jill's love for him saving his life, go here.

Ben Starr (Clive)'s voice acting + absolutely stand-out fantastic in full cutscenes - so horrible in sidequests it felt like he was given no voice direction at all. every single line of dialogue is delivered exactly the same. every time. and it's a fucking shame, because Clive is actually hilarious, but the botched delivery of the lines does not convey it.

A "more mature" Final Fantasy + the blood and sex and brutality was great and helped the characters feel more like actual real people. letting the characters curse was also great, but - bro tone down the swearing. it's cartoonish, after a while. almost started to feel like the writers were having a competition to see who could use the word "fuck" the most amount of times in a dialogue exchange. they used "fuck" for literally everything, when probably a "shit" or a "damn it" would have been better. and this is coming from someone who says the word "fuck" all the fucking time.

Sidequests + when the stories in the sidequests are good, they're GOOD. like, REALLY REALLY GOOD. - when they're not good, they're awful time-wasters and - there's no way of knowing whether a quest is going to be important/compelling or a waste of time when you start it, so every initiation of a quest is a roll of the dice - the actual activities you do during the quests are MMO-tier fetch quests or quick combat quests, which, to be fair, is also the same as the substories in Yakuza -- but the thing about Yakuza substories is that they're so over-the-top ridiculous that you don't notice that you're just performing very basic actions. the bad/boring sidequests in XVI really make you notice that that's all they are.

And that, my friends, is the summation of the strange paradox that is Final Fantasy XVI. Simultaneously one of the best and one of the worst games I’ve ever played.