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illegiblewords · 5 months ago

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Almost current in Dawntrail, I make some references to plot stuff under the cut but this post isn't mainly about Dawntrail. This is an analytical rant. There are people who disagree with me that I adore/respect to bits who have done brilliant stuff from angles I wouldn't take. People shouldn’t stop doing what they’re inspired to do according to whether I like or dislike something. This post qualifies less with 'I think' and 'I believe' statements/is a little harsher because I'm venting though. Proceed at your discretion.

Features critical/darker discussions of Venat and Hermes with brief mentions of Zenos.

I really, genuinely think a lot of people are only getting pieces of what's going on in FFXIV.

The story still isn't black and white. Characters very, very often are not what they advertise themselves to be. Neither the cast nor fans are immune to misjudging.

Hermes is not as compassionate as he presents himself. There is an enormous discrepancy between what he professes and the choices he consistently makes, both with regard to other ancients and creations. I do believe he was genuinely miserable but he is basically Satan from Paradise Lost, who wonders why he alone was made unsatisfied with obedience and perfection. Who recognizes there is difference in himself compared to others but is conflicted about whether this is a defect or higher calling. Satan sees himself as inherently 'other' above all else and Hermes is just the same. The shared snake imagery isn't a coincidence either.

Everything I've seen points to Hermes being a narcissist who does not have instinctive empathy in a society where empathy is the most valuable quality a person can have. He strives to have more empathy than all other people without truly understanding what that means. It's why he projects his anger and hatred onto the wolf creation as it dies instead of offering it any kind of comfort. It's why he sends Meteion into space to suffer pain, death, and despair as a high empathy being who challenges all concepts of what it means to be alive… instead of presenting her to the Bureau of the Architect, where her very existence might instigate star-wide reform for how all other creations are handled. For his ego, he needed to be the only one with extensive knowledge of dynamis. He needed to be the only one with answers from on high regarding the nature of life. That was far more important than Meteion's wishes or well-being, and the creations he claims to love are expendable for this purpose. He frequently oscillates between seeing himself as beneath all other ancients and the sole, divinely powerful judge/jury/executioner of all living things. Like Satan from Paradise Lost he can't be grouped with those around him. He can't be just one of many ancients dealing with fears, doubts, despairs. He MUST be exceptional above all else. I'd argue the main reason he accepts the Warrior of Light at all is because we do not appear as a fellow ancient to him--he sees us as a familiar, and therefore inherently without equal authority and agency compared to him. When we are useful to his worldview he uses us and when we aren't we're disposable.

I've seen people claim that Hermes is just anxious and that's why he didn't submit Meteion. You don't opt for genocide and decree all of humanity as immoral and unworthy of mercy without even allowing your targets a voice to answer out of anxiety. You certainly don't do that while having specifically gone out of your way to avoid any steps that might have given room for more charitable judgments. Hermes opted to destroy everyone because it was what he wanted to do, but it didn't fit his self-image as a benevolent and empathetic person to do so. That's why he made a loophole via memory erasure.

Venat, further, is not a hero. She's gray at best and in all likelihood a pretty dark shade of it. Light motifs and crystal mommy themes do not change this. She not only decided, independently, that Hermes' genocide was an appropriate course without allowing anyone else room to discuss or address the issue--she actively denied everyone else knowledge of what happened or even basic information about dynamis (LET ALONE METEION'S LOCATION) so they could deal with the issue effectively. She passed judgment on the entire Convocation because of Hermes' appointment without once judging herself for withholding information on his true character. There is a reason Emet-Selch called her out for being immediately ready to see herself as a morally correct messiah of the star. He wasn't wrong to do so. And especially after Endwalker I think Venat grossly misunderstood not only what led to worlds self-destructing on a philosophical level (never mind Meteion's emotion amplification powers), I think she misread her own star and its people. Pursuit of purity and certainty was what led to the destruction of worlds. The total absence of pain is just one form that can take, but it isn't necessary for a world to be in perpetual agony to avoid that. Venat dismissed the despairs and struggles of her own fellow ancients because there was no room for them in the view she had of herself and her world. If she didn't see them they didn't exist, but even when she did see them they didn't count enough to sway her judgment. Venat had to be the most correct person and she didn't allow even as Hydaelyn the possibility of making mistakes or unwarranted cruelty to others. She is 1000% guilty of 'ancient hubris'.

Venat might be a more middling gray, in my view, depending on whether she'd been trying to shield as many people as possible from tempering with the traveler's ward only for most of the star to become tempered by Zodiark post-summoning. There are a lot of repeating phrases between Elidibus, post-Final Days ancients, and the lunar shades that I think point to mass tempering. Venat would have grounds for assuming people had homogenized views, prayers, and voices if the star was largely tempered. If they weren't, I think she becomes pretty sinister for how she deals with people's post-Final Days trauma. Her injustice toward the ancients in that case would just happen to be in a way that benefits the shards.

The Zodiark plan prevented life from going extinct. It was necessary. Zodiark's tempering and the subsequent sacrifice spiral were not deliberate I suspect, seeing as Zodirk was the first primal EVER. People have been consistently misreading the loporrit quote on this to try and argue that Zodiark didn't temper the Unsundered.

The line states that Venat used a different summoning technique to the one utilized by Ascians. Venat's technique specifically does not temper people. The Ascian method does. If Venat's technique was used to summon an entity of Zodiark's magnitude (whose power could not be resisted according to Emet-Selch) there might be a slight tug toward tempering despite the technique being much safer.

This is not saying Zodiark didn't temper anyone. It's specifically saying that despite Venat having a safe technique, Zodiark's summoning was on such a monumental scale that even Venat's technique would carry some risk.

Meanwhile, Lahabrea has been getting set up for years as someone who has been dehumanized, judged, isolated, and misunderstood. This has continued to increasing degrees through Dawntrail. It has been going on since A Realm Reborn. The sheer consistency of it is insane at this point. There is a HUGE gap between how Lahabrea emotes and what he's actually feeling. His choices reflect this and it is demonstrated firsthand in Pandaemonium.

No one seemed to think it was weird that Lahabrea was ready to commit a pseudo-suicide by killing Hephaistos. No one seemed to catch that the 'pseudo-suicide' in the lyrics to Scream referenced Lahabrea, as did the 'shadow left far behind' line. People contorted themselves into pretzels trying to say that Scream was not about him. Nevermind that Pandaemonium is the Lahabrea raid, in which all other characters were supporting cast to flesh out Lahabrea. It must be mainly about Hegemone and Agdistis! If not them, it must be mainly about Erichthonios!

The man's entire story is about being dehumanized, dismissed, invalidated, and excluded while suffering severe mental illness. It's kind of horrendous that fans are continuing to do this to him on a meta level.

Lahabrea has a long history of Abrahamic imagery. If the Warring Triad mirror the Unsundered, Sephirot as the Tree of Life maps to the Kabbalistic process of creation. The game explicitly and correctly references this in the attacks used. The lyrics to Fiend track for Lahabrea as does the association with Id issues, and there's symbolically significant overlap between muscular/multi-armed Sephirot (where multiple arms reference the boddisatva Guanyin, who uses those many arms to help those in need) to muscular/multi-armed Zodiark as Lahabrea's creation. And Zodiark being Lahabrea's creation is indicated in Akademia Anyder. People have been trying to attribute Zodiark to Hermes because Hermes hijacked him in EW and it drives me nuts.

Meanhwile, what did Pandaemonium do?

Paired the Tree of Life to The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There's a ton of snake, fruit, and mouth imagery in Pandaemonium. Athena is Eve offering Lahabrea as Adam knowledge of good and evil via the soul bonding. Lahabrea has been afraid of himself as an extremely powerful ancient (which I've analyzed before, tying to Emet-Selch too), particularly given he's in a position of power. He reflects the societal idea that someone with his aetherial strength and authority cannot afford to be selfish or he risks causing immeasurable harm to others. Result is that Lahabrea is absolutely terrified of being selfish in any capacity, even on a basic healthy level. Athena meanwhile is a purely selfish being. Like I believe is the case with Hermes (and am positive is the case with Zenos)--she does not have instinctive empathy. Athena deliberately psychologically violated her husband by forcing him to acknowledge understanding selfish desire through her perspective, then compounded it by exploiting his lack of self-confidence to say he was bound to be just like her for understanding such selfishness. She's not an authority on that, but Lahabrea sees himself as personally less than Athena and is not at that point equipped to argue on his own behalf.

Anyway. Abrahamic connections, Hegemone has the snake imagery. Agdistis has the tree and the fruit. Athena is Eve. The soul bonding is the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Hephaistos uses a ton of snake imagery too. Lahabrea is covered in symbolism both on a personal psychological level and tied to traditional symbolism via the hand of god acting upon the world, the eye of god watching the world. For savage, one arm is covered in eyes. This is his role as Lahabrea employing power for his people. The other arm, his personal desires/needs, is long and thin and malformed/not really functional. He covers his heart with a pair of wings for protection and reduces himself, weeping, to DNA because that's the only value he sees in himself. He'd rather be that than himself as a person because at least as DNA he's wanted for something. Lahabrea doesn't think anyone would ever give a shit about him on a personal level.

When Hephaistos is defeated, there's a reason Lahabrea is shaken when he states that Hephaistos' goal was never to raise himself high. That was what Athena wanted and what she told him he'd want. All Hephaistos wanted was his family back and to be loved. That was the moment Lahabrea had to introspect and realized Athena wasn't correct about his motives. Her declaring something about him didn't make it true.

Erichthonios is convinced he has a cruel and indifferent father for much of the raid. We see him twist neutral-to-kind gestures as malicious in front of us, as with Lahabrea allowing him to go to Pandaemonium as a child but insisting he know spells to protect himself. Erichthonios takes Lahabrea's insistence as believing he's not good enough instead of wanting him to be safe. We also see Erichthonios construe something that actually points to Lahabrea being depressed (giving himself no credit for completing the phoenix and advertising nothing only to be surprised by coworkers throwing him a celebration anyway) as him scorning Pandaemonium for not sharing the achievement with them. Erichthonios was taught to do this by Athena, and Athena likewise twists Lahabrea's self-image as a form of psychological abuse from the moment he approaches her in the soul bonding scene. She cites his status and accuses Lahabrea of thinking himself morally above others for descending to Pandaemonium and judging her. It never occurs to Athena that Lahabrea would try to stop her because he loves and wants to protect his son.

People are projecting their own personal beef with parents behaving poorly to assume Lahabrea is an uncaring father. He's not. He's extremely mentally ill and Erichthonios was groomed by an abusive mother while having no concept of what Lahabrea's mental illness would even look like... let alone how to deal with it.

Lahabrea explicitly thinks Erichthonios is better off with the false memory of a mother who abused him than having him present as a father because he considers himself so personally worthless. He can only see his presence as a detriment in his son's life. He is a short step from the kind of suicide people commit when they think other people would be happier and less burdened if they were dead. 'They might be sad for a while, but ultimately they'll be better off.'

I'm not even bringing out my citations right now. This isn't an Archon Thesis because I want my evidence properly assembled for that. But I recently saw someone try to frame the Convocation and Zodiark plan as uniformly awful, when the reality is doing nothing would have resulted in life going extinct. And if we're talking about zodiac signs mapping to Convocation members, there are more layers to it than 'Ascians = bad versions of the zodiac'.

Ex. The duality (two fish) and creativity associated with Pisces both apply to Lahabrea, but the emotionality does too. It isn't obvious at first but when you look it's there. Lahabrea has hidden strong emotions consistently through a variety of methods across the game. Sometimes it's reserve, sometimes it's aggression, sometimes it's hysteria. But when you look at the surrounding circumstances from his perspective, it makes perfect sense how and why he'd emote that way. It has never been safe for him to be emotionally vulnerable.

One of the earliest moments of 'villain laughter' from him we see is at Carteneau. His assistant waits quietly for him to finish. At that point Bahamut had been unleashed in yet another action that goes directly against Lahabrea's own morals, but is necessary to the Ardor. The sundered respond by invoking Lahabrea's phoenix as protection for humanity against a primal Lahabrea helped orchestrate. On some level people instinctively believe Lahabrea can and will protect them despite his failures, their own reincarnations, and thousands of years passing. It's ironic and horrible but this kind of irony has been happening to Lahabrea over and over again. If he doesn't laugh the dude's going to cry and (again) it isn't safe for him to do that.

(Also as the only Ascian to ever refer to Zodiark as 'master', Lahabrea is A) very tempered B) continuing a pattern of thought/behavior/worldbuilding where he puts his people first and himself dead last C) not talking about Athena. Lahabrea says in-game he had no earthly idea Athena was in the Heart of Sabik. I do think Heart of Sabik effected him by magnifying his desire to save his people and redeem himself in the face of survivor's guilt. It might have influenced his phrasing too. I have theories about what Lahabrea did at Praetorium but blowing it up was not 'the ultimate magic' by any means. I'm pretty sure he used it as a Themis and/or Zodiark backup drive, which Athena's presence at Anabaseios proves is possible anyway. He doesn't need to know about her to figure it out.

People have tried to say Athena is Lahabrea's god instead of Zodiark. Especially given the history of abuse and Lahabrea's own repeatedly shown priorities/actions, that take is pretty appalling imo. Completely dismisses how devoted he has always been to his people to destroy his will and identity altogether on a meta level.)

Even if we strip shit down to the most bare bones narrative form and ignore evidence--where motives and arcs are concerned 'oh Lahabrea has always been evil/uncaring/sociopathic/self-absorbed and stayed that way forever after' is bad storytelling. That would require a 'failure to change' arc as literal or spiritual death. That arc form ties to death because life requires accounting for/adapting to new experiences. If a character fails to do that (for better or worse) that character is stagnant and effectively not living. Such arcs require meticulously showing the process of rejecting experiences though. Zoraal Ja actually approaches the form a bit when we see him repeatedly taking nothing from the trials he undergoes, but his trajectory becomes 'change for the worse' after losing to his father's shade. None of the Unsundered are set up with that arc form, Lahabrea included. It wouldn't offer any insight, fit with what we know of the ancients and their values/society, or carry any emotional impact. Trying to go that route without setup is just bad storytelling and makes characters less believable. But yeah. Tl;dr I really, really wish people paid more attention and examined words vs actions vs surrounding circumstances vs motives.

#Seriously use your discretion here I didn't cushion my opinions in this one it's a rant #Deliberately no tags and I'd prefer not to have it in search either #I reference some analytical takes that frustrate me but I don't have beef with the analysts personally #mental health themes are important to me but they tend to be handled poorly in fandom imo #long post

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koukouture · 5 months ago

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Kou's AO3 ffxiv fic rec list

I am so insane and I literally have only been reading FFXIV fanfics for like the past four or so months so here r some of my favorites

I will split it up into three categories: reader inserts, WoL OCs, and then yk fics with only the characters.

WARNING: I read lots of unsavory shit so please heed the tags in the links as I will not be going over those in this list.

*length of fics will be rounded to nearest thousand

Reader insert's

The Rise of Emperor Solus zos Galvus by amandaterasu

(Emet Selch x reader) Length: 25k Status: Complete (one shot) Review: You don't understand I think about this fic at least once a day oh my fucking LORD. 25k words just GONE in an instant I read this in like under an hour. Actually gigging and kicking my feet this shit bro liiiiiike the way this author writes Emet Selch... ouuuuughhh. I love it when a man is just so insane for his woman that he finds her in another life and immediately starts courting her. Honestly, this shit is just so good it reads almost like a historical drama in the best ways possible. Yeah it's romance (and smut) but it's also politics (kinda) and idk about you but those are my two favorite things. I now need a full length novel about Emet Selch's rise to emperor of Garlemald but yk what this shit is just as good. Bonus points for this author for introducing me to fanfic reading extensions to replace certain terms I will be using this from now on.

Tremble, Duck, & Weave by OwlEspresso

(Estinien, Aymeric, Haurchefant, Urianger x reader) Length: 31k Status: Incomplete Review: This inspired my current big project, Hellbound and yeah idk something about Ishgardian politics man. I'm gonna warn you right now a lot of these reader insert recs WILL be yandere/yandere-adjacent with a lot of unhealthy themes, general debauchery, and doves ranging from beaten to dead so uh... yeah. That aside, this is just a really fun time. Seeing everyone interact with the reader insert and all the different ways they show (or think about) their twisted affections... hnnnng it makes me a little insane okay. Also, shout out to pervert Haurchefant you will always be near and dear to my heart. We were ROBBED in the English translation

Captivate by samsaur

(Aymeric and Estinien x reader) Length: 41k Status: Incomplete Review: Remember what I said about doves ranging from being beaten up to dead? Well, the dove is definitely dead here, but it's rlly juicy because this shit really does feel like a horror story. I am not qualified to speak on it, but I think this is a great portrayal of Stockholm syndrome and the way it's written really puts you into the shoes of the reader insert and you kind of feel that hot and silent shame of being held captive like this. Also, one of my favorite niches of FFXIV fanfics is apparently villain Aymeric. Idk why but he is so good as a villain probably because he had every single reason to turn out one, and he would be a far more terrifying villain than Thordan. If Aymeric wasn't our ally during Heavensward, he would undoubtedly be a huge threat to us and this fic kinda takes that and dangles it over your head. Because, yes, Aymeric is holding the reader captive but he is also helping Alphinaud and Tataru out. It's this balancing act where we know Aymeric is capable of really fucked up things but he is still playing at the perfect image of our noble ally. You find yourself yelling at everyone else not to trust him because you, the reader and his captive, know that he is a piece of shit in this AU and I think it's glorious. Uhhh Estinien is there too ig. It's no fault on the author's part but I just don't really vibe with Estinien as a love interest. Though, his dynamic with Aymeric and the reader is extremely interesting to me. I can't say too much without spoiling all the fun, but I think in a way Aymeric has him trapped under this thumb too.

I'd Ask For Your Soul, But It's Already Mine by Dotharl

(Zenos x reader) Length: 29k Status: Incomplete Review: Guys it's fucking Zenos PLEASE read the tags on this one. Anyways I love my porn kjakjfjkjakhshjfjhk. Okay but genuinely I always say this, but Zenos is surprisingly genuine as a love interest because he doesn't put WoL up on a pedestal and just loves them for all of their worst bits and THAT is the appeal of enemies to lovers. This fic plays with that, especially with the reader insert being a Dark Knight WoL where Fray talks some sense into them and helps them recognize their self worth. I won't lie to you, this fic starts out with VERY fucked up Yandere fuckboy Zenos energy with all of the dubcon included, but I kinda don't care + it's just genuinely well written at times. The dynamic between WoL and Zenos is very nice here, bc yeah it starts out... like that and then it evolves into mutual respect when the reader realizes that Zenos would treat them well and not yk use them as a weapon. Albeit, it does go kind of quick but eh, it's like 4 chapters so I can't fault the author THAT much. Besides, not to diminish the fic, but it IS pretty clearly just kind of a pornfest and that is A-Okay with me! This shit was also last updated in like 2022 so I'm pretty sure it's abandoned.

Not a Champion, Just a Knight by Kei_Cordelle

(Haurchefant x reader)

Length: 23k Status: Incomplete Review: This one is in kind of a weird position because this is an AU where WoL dies at the Vault instead of Haurchefant, so there isn't exactly any HaurcheWoL action to speak of. But, WoL definitely haunts the characters' actions. Bro, when I tell you, the worst part of this fic is actually Alphinaud being very NOT OKAY bc WoL is dead. He is just a baby what the fuck do you mean he watched his friend, confidant, and hero die in front of him???? Yeah sorry I love Alphinaud a normal amount. (that is my SON) Anyways, this is written in first person which is weirdly a turn off for some people? I don't get the hate tbh, because first person just opens up so many fun opportunities! You can break the fourth wall much easier and directly address the reader, and you can also have the vibe that this is a retrospective of what the character saw. The later is definitely the vibe this fic gives. It's like, if the Heavensward memoir was written from Haurche's perspective in this AU. To me, I like to think that this fic is Haurchefant telling the tale of his greatest love and regret in writing. I feel like the action scenes could use some work but they're not terrible. It's just that they're literally one to one recounting of the Heavensward trials and it's just not the best. I think there's also the issue of the cast becoming slightly bloated so it is a bit rough to account for everyone's actions during fight sequences. I really do love this fic though because I think it's really interesting to see how everyone is unraveling. Obviously, we as the WoL take on a lot of things that are almost impossible for everyone else so to see them take on the monumental burden of the hero is very interesting. How would our companions react to certain things? Since during most trials in canon we take it on alone, how does everyone else fit in? Are they all doing the mechanics correctly? All in all, solid fic and I am holding out hope for that fated final fifth chapter since the last time it was updated was back in January and it was started back in 2022 so one day I hope that this will be complete and I get to see the final mental breakdown as the squad completes Heavensward with the legacy of WoL looming over them ✨

WoL OC Inserts

Coerthan Traitor by Cascanora (@cascanora here on Tumblr)

(Zenos x OC, a bit of typical Emet Selch and Azem reincarnation messiness) Length: 190k (GOD DAMN-) Status: Ongoing Review: The author of this fic is highkey like a celebrity to me bc I gobble up their art like it's fucking Christmas morning. Imagine being God's favorite and being blessed with the ability to draw AND WRITE??? Fucking insanity bro. Also, their OC, Crow is fine as hell like one chance ma'am pleeeeeeaaaaaseeee goddddddd- Anyways onto the actual fic, I am admittedly only on the first arc which is kind of like the childhood arc ig. But I really love it so far because I've just never seen anyone really write Zenos being kind of young and vulnerable and playful? That's a lie, I think I've read like one Zenos fluff that I'll have to dig through my AO3 history to find again (bc you'd best believe none of my bookmarks are fluffly...) so I just really like the change of pace. Zenos is obviously always put in more enemies to lovers type scenarios so I kinda like this different angle because yeah maybe he was something resembling normal at one point. Obviously he's very fucked up for a reason, but he was a kid too. He didn't always go off about biting jugulars and drinking blood or something, he got fucked up. I am so far absolutely living for a lot of the political stuff bc as I've said before, romance with a side of politics (or vice versa) is my cup of tea and nobody pulls this shit off better than fanfic authors. I'm really interested to see where the political stuff goes but it's like 2am (sheesh) as I'm writing this so I will have to delve further into this fic later. Anyways can I take a moment to talk about Crow and Zenos? Because they're so fucking cute I love themmmmm. I feel like I'm coming at this as someone who has seen a lot of Cascanora's art so I see when Crow and Zenos' relationship develop into when they're adults, so seeing the early stages of it is really cool to me. I don't quite know how to explain it? But anyways I am raving about this fic bc I think it just builds them both up so well and again, I don't see Zenos written to be playful and yk act his age the way he does around Crow. They just work together so well and while at the point of the story I'm at they're definitely just friends, I think that's the beautiful thing about friends to lovers. Regardless if it's romantic or platonic love, Zenos and Crow are a package deal. Also, Emet Selch/Solus in this fic is perfect. I LOVE my geriatric old man telling stories about his past. I would go off about how I am very captivated by the whole Galvus family dynamic but I will save that for the other fics bc this review section is already super fucking long and you had BEST BELIEVE I'm scouring the internet for Galvus family fics. I lied I will talk about this a little more because this strikes an odd chord with me as someone who wrote a lot of my own longform OC x Canon growing up. I kinda shamed myself off doing that kinda stuff as I got older, but diving into FFXIV where everyone becomes fucking Shakespear with their WoLs has made me let go of my fears of being a cringefailure and embrace the OC x Canon. To see really well written and thought out OC insert stuff is very comforting to me bc I often worry abt my own OCs being shitty and not really fitting in but fics like this assure me that hey, maybe I can make cool shit and that really is the most beautiful part of fanfiction and fandom in general. Fandom is this incredible loop of finding amazing shit and thinking "wow, I wanna do that too" and it's just really rewarding.

Save the Last Dance For Me by lalahganaja

(Alphinaud x WoL OC) Length: 11k Status: Complete (yatta!!!!) Review: ALPHINAUD MY BEAUTIFUL SONNNNN AAAAAAAARRRGGHHHSJGFKJGSGKHJHJF. This fic is so delightful bc it feels like I'm cheering on my children to kiss. A'tahja is so fucking precious and her and Alphinaud just bounce off each other so well. This fic also has the other Scions making an appearance and I fucking love it so much. Found family will never NOT make me absolutely batshit insane. Like yes, Y'shtola mamma cat <3 anyways *chews on Alphinaud and A'tahja* This is just so insanely fluffy and it made me slam my desk every few minutes bc cute teenage love story!!!! How can I not!!!! Alphinaud just acts like an adult a lot of the time and gets put in a lot of adult situations, but in this fic he just gets to be a little guy. A'tahja too, obviously as the WoL she's often off doing insane shit that no teenager should ever have to do and bearing burdens that are too much for a little skrunkly such as herself. But here they just get to be silly little kiddies who are very down bad for each other and it's adorable. I think another thing I really liked was A'tahja getting more in touch with her femininity? Idk how to put. But basically she had really short hair for most of her life bc she pretended to be a boy while in poverty, so to see her be A) pampered and B) learn to take care of herself and be more girly was super cute to see. Also, I am just always really surprised whenever I remember that Alphinaud can drink lmao. Like no, you are a baby (I was the same age as Alphinaud when I started playing this game) put the beer down and go sip on a capri sun or smth. God. Kids these days...

Canon character fics (?)

and i'm your clone, your strange creation by egg(strwpup)

(Fortemps familial angst from Artoirel's pov) Length: 6k Status: Complete (oneshot) Listen to me, I love this fic beyond words, but for the sake of my mental health I will NEVER read this shit again. My daddy issues go fucking DEEP like this is utter insanity. Don't get me wrong it is beautifully written and I love complicated family dynamics- but by god this fucked me up so bad. See, I like to personally believe that Edmont was a good, albeit flawed father but his sons know that he loves them and they love him in turn. But I know deep down in my heart of hearts that it is so much more complicated than that because you know, we can't have nice things here at Square Enix. It just personally fucks me up because I too, like Artoirel in this fic, am a momma's boy at heart and I... kinda hate my dad lmao. Basically, I kin Artoirel in this fic. Oldest child who has it out for my father + hates that I'm kinda like him. He loves his mother but holds contempt for his father, perhaps unfairly but can you blame him? (yeah I'm not only describing Artoirel here...) Edmont is a less than stellar father in this fic but you can tell he loves his kids and aaaaaaaaa I'm tearing up again. The complicated family dynamics + the drama of what happened in Heavensward is just so fucking delicious bro. 10/10 this fic destroyed me in every sense of the word and I do not want to go through that emotional reckoning again. However, I will be writing Edmont as a shitty dad in my fics now. Sorry but I am always just so insane for that sweet sweet eldest child and father dynamic because it's always so disastrous. Having parents is just so strange.

mon corps, le mien; mon coeur, le tien by steelthighsvoideyes

(Aymeric x Haurchefant x Estinien with a side of angst + Haurchefant survives the Vault AU) Length: 43k Status: Incomplete Review: I also started tearing up while writing this review because Haurchefant just does that to me okay? I feel like with a lot of Ishgard trio ship fics Haurche is always kind of left out? Or, he feels a bit tacked on to the Estimeric dynamic. That, or he's just sitting there with unrequited love bc clearly this man has not suffered enough. With this fic however, it definitely feels a lot more balanced. Like yeah a majority of the fic is just Haurchefant and Estinien bonding in the hospital, but Aymeric still feels present because of their shared past and how it's constantly being brought up. (in a good way) All three of them get the spotlight so you don't really lean towards one pairing. Romance aside, I really like the Ishgard trio's established dynamic in this fic because they're just guys being dudes. Besties who were in the military together. Like, Aymeric balances the trio out, Haurchefant is the sort of boisterous youngest member and Estinien is gruff and sarcastic and the banter between the three of them just flows so naturally. It's an actual friendship dynamic that serves as a solid foundation for what will hopefully be a romantic dynamic later on. Once again, friends to lovers is so good for this reason because the foundation is already there. You appreciate them as a person and you are aware of their flaws from the get-go, so when it turns romantic you skip a lot of the awkward exploration phase and can just be comfortable with each other. Anyways as for the crying part- the Fortemps familial drama follows Haurche throughout this fic and it does make me a little, tiny bit crazy. Not gonna spoil it, but the way Haurchefant feels about his family in this fic is just so real and visceral because of course it's super complicated. Once again, I like Edmont being a good dad, but realistically, it's shades of gray. Another thing about Haurchefant that not only this fic does but a lot of other people also head canon, is that his selflessness and willing to give can be self destructive at times. Once again, not gonna spoil, but it's just super heartbreaking to read Haurchefant be almost hypocritical, telling his friends to take care of themselves only for him to almost completely disregard himself. That's kind of what he does at the Vault in the first place, like that man died knowing that he did the right thing and protected his friend and oh god I'm gonna cry again I should stop talking... (I am not even kidding when I say that I will eventually write a Haurchefant character essay...)

Unicorn's Favor by Neyasochi

(Aymeric x Haurchefant x Estinien, yet another Haurche survives the Vault AU) Length: 34k Status: Complete Review: So, this is one of those fics where I feel Haurchefant is kinda just taped onto the Estimeric dynamic, and that's fine, it's whatever, I'm here for the porn and the banter. The premise of this fic is that Haurche helps get Estinien and Aymeric together and then smutty gay things happen. And that's all well and good BUT I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE FORTEMPS BROTHERS IN THIS FIC!!! *holds them gentle* For me, the best part of this fic was Haurchefant's relationship with his family which for a change, is NOT super angsty and complicated. It's all very heartwarming to see how in this fic the brothers get along very well (contrary to canon where unfortunately we know they were never very close) and to see Haurchefant really appreciate that he's still alive and gets to be around the people he loves more. It's just super cute and fluffy and now I just need fics like this in general. Yeah whatever it's not canon that the Fortemps bros actually like each other this much BUT IDC!!!! YOU NEVER SEPERATE TRIOS!!!! Speaking of trios, the Ishgard trio dynamic in this is yk it's fine it's whatever. In this particular fic, I find it quite cute that Haurche had a crush on Aymeric as a kid, so even if they aren't all buddy buddy in this fic there's still that lingering admiration and it's cute. I also completely swear by pansexual Haurchefant bc that man does NOT discriminate. Okay enough abt the French I will talk about the Italians (Romans) now.

Far colder on the earth than in the heavens by Altimas_Bane

(Galvus family things) Length: 7k Status: Complete Review: I told you I love my familial angst. No, I'm NOT okay. It DOES make me absolutely rabid that Emet Selch as Solus couldn't help but have some hope for the sundered because of Lucius because can you fucking imagine that??? Your son who gave you a little bit of hope for the broken, shattered people who replaced your brethren dies and that is the nail in the coffin. That is what makes you fully believe that they are unworthy. It was briefly mentioned in the short story "Through his Eyes", but Emet Selch had a little bit of hope for Lucius, and he was probably distraught when his son died. This fic goes over that agonizing feeling of watching someone slowly waste away from sickness. It is slow, it is painful, and it is gut wrenching. Idk man, just read it.

Son, Father, Emperor by January Blue

(Varis reflecting on his life and especially his relationship with Zenos)

Length: 12k Status: Complete Review: Heyyyyyy do you bitches remember when I said that Varis probably loved Zenos when he was younger but eventually held contempt for the monster he created? You all probably thought I was crazy for reading them like this BUT I'M NOT!!!!! Anyways fatherly angst strikes again (I am in shambles and this fic goes onto the list of fics that I will never read again for the sake of my mental health) LISTEN TO ME AND LISTEN WELL; Varis and Zenos' relationship isn't so black and white. No I'm not defending Varis- but come on the entire Galvus family is fucking crazy man. Anyways, to quote the comment I left on this fic because I do not want to repeat and retype it myself: "Varis, in a lineage of men that are strong, born into the arena that is politics, is WEAK because he is EMOTIONAL. Solus/Emet Selch calls him emotional in the cutscene he was introduced in (unless I'm hallucinating) and that SENT me because I was forced to rethink all of the information we had been shown of Varis until then. I wrote him off as a shallow villain but I did some digging and Varis is surprisingly the most empathetic in the Galvus household and it SHOWS whenever Solus berated him in cutscenes." Varis had emotions, he had morals he had a line that he would not cross. He has been shown to be merciful (when we parlayed with him in the Ghimlyt Dark) and it's known that he at least cared for his late wife, Zenos' mother. Obviously, he would extend that to his son at one point, right? Perhaps when he was still young and unmarked by the world- right???? See, I really like this fic because it frames Varis' absence from Zenos' life as unintentional, but at the same time, it does not absolve him of the fact that he is a terrible father. I don't want to say too much because I would very much like it if YOU, my dearest reader, took as much emotional damage reading this as I did- but I digress. Varis and Zenos' relationship is not as simple as "Varis hates Zenos" there's obviously some shades of gray here. I personally believed that there's no way Varis hated Zenos because Zenos' mother died in childbirth, and clearly, other people think the same. Listen, you don't just hate your own flesh and blood, at least, not from the very beginning. It's a slow process, and I know it in my heart of hearts that Varis regretted what he let happen to Zenos This fic is just so wonderfully written and I was actually kinda bouncing around my room reading this. Once again, major daddy issues, so maybe that's why I like believing that Varis loved Zenos once upon a time. Something, something, father's love their kids until they grow a mind of their own.

And that's my list! In the future as I make my way through fanfics I have marked for later due to spoilers, I might make another one of these because I think people need to read this shit!!!!

If one of your fics is on here please send me an ask so that I might go back and edit this to tag you!

#can you tell who my favourite ffxiv character is????#gonna do one of these for PGR eventually but there aren't a bunch of PGR fics in general...#if you wrote any of this fics can we be mooties 👉👈#ffxiv #ffxiv fanfics #ff14 #fanfiction recommendation #fanfiction rec list #fanfic recs #ffxiv fanfiction #ffxiv x reader #i actually have a few reader insert fics i would have included but tbh i didn't want to list off EVERY single one of them #most of them are smut anyways...#not tagging the individual characters #kouryuu's shit #ff14 online #ffxiv online #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy xiv

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nshi-ao3 · 5 days ago

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Hello! I originally wrote this as a comment, and then the hypers fixated and it ended up being so comedically long that it didn’t come close to fitting tumblr’s comment character limit XD. So I’m sending it as an ask instead!

Also!! Spoilers for A Realm Reborn, the Stormblood patches, the Werlyt questline, and extremely vague spoilers for a region in Endwalker! Massive Writing Ramble (™️) ahead. You have been warned. >:D

Regarding your Wyvern AU: AGAHDBDJEDHWKDHWJFB?!???!!?!?!?

As both a whump-hurt/comfort enjoyer and a Maxima fan (I LOVE HIM. I LOVE HIM. I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT MAXIMA AS A CHARACTER OKAY) this au is incomprehensible shrieking noises.

I’m so interested in Ren and Gaius. From a storytelling perspective, I honestly really like Gaius, (liking a character and agreeing with their actions are two Very Different Things!!!!!!!) and I think his arc in the STB patches is SO good. He’s such an interesting character!! Our first intro to him is in ARR, as the pretty generic villain of the pretty generic Bad Empire™️ who wants to invade Eorzea (there are a host of reasons for that genericity, and the game absolutely adds complexity to Garlemald and Gaius later, but in ARR at least, they’re both pretty flat). He gives an iconic yet also very generic elevator pitch (literally), and then we don’t hear from him until STB. In that time, we hear much about him — namely that he treats his soldiers fairly, that he does genuinely seem to believe this is the best course of action for Eorzea, that he’s a guy with a lot of privilege and a lot of power and some Extremely misguided yet well-intentioned beliefs. He shut down Black Rose! He doesn’t want to destroy every Eorzean after he subjugates them! Big Yikes, but that in itself provides the opportunity for some REALLY interesting character growth. And we see that in the STB patches and Werlyt! That he’s dedicated his life to trying to atone. That he fucked up big-time, and he wants to try and put some good back in the world. That he survived Prae for a reason, and he’s going to hunt down Ascians so no others can follow the path he followed. Now, throwing Ren into the mix? Ren, who may have lost his memories and been badly tortured, but whose entire purpose before getting yeeted to Hydaelyn was destroying the concept of authority and fighting against oppression? Whose literal heart and soul are a conceptualization of rebellion?? Throwing THAT Ren, even without most of his memories, into Gaius’s path????? Knowing where Gaius eventually ends up (regarding both his goals for Prae and his later arc in the Burn) and that his current path is formed from some Very Very poor choices with at least not evil intentions??? ohohohohoho. OHOHOHOHO. Cackles in storyteller. That is FASCINATING. That’s SUCH an intriguing dynamic. Does something in Ren realize what it is he and Gaius are doing? Does something in Gaius? How do they interact? How do they read each others’ actions? How do they affect each other??? What could go differently if someone (Ren) were to step in before Gaius led the charge on Eorzea?????

SCREECHES. AWGRJWGDJG IT’S SO SO INTERESTING AND I LOVE THIS SO MUCH AND AGAGAGFJFEHFJGK coughs. haha

ANYWAYS. This AU is so damn good. I think that the intersection of Ren and Maxima as characters in this context is so interesting, and I love Ren having at least one little bright light in the form of that relationship in the midst of a Very Bad experience. I love that dynamic between him and Zenos?? It’s hilarious and so in character for both of them. And also like… man. The IMPLICATIONS!!!! Ren and Hydaelyn!!!! Ren and the Scions!!!! How would they feel about each other?? The dramatic irony too is SO *chef’s kiss.* We as the audience presumably are familiar with either or both FFXIV and P5, and also, considering we’re reading the post on your tumblr, with Stars in the Dark. So we know what could have happened, and seeing the characters and the differences in their relationships and the differences in particular with how Ren interacts with them is ough agh big feelings /pos. And even an eventual healing arc (if that’s in the cards for him) in this AU would be so. agh /pos. whump-hurt/comfort beloved fr fr

Obligatory disclaimer that all of the questions here are rhetorical and meant not as actual questions/demands directed at you, but more as conceptualizations of the different ways one could explore this dynamic and these changes!!

This au is so so cool!!!!!! :D

Haha! That's fine! I'm glad you had so much to say about it!

Maxima! Yeah Maxima's a great guy. Good to see some Maxima love. :) I love the idea of him being utterly horrified by what they're doing to this poor kid, but he hasn't had a chance to defect yet or anything so he's just... trying to sneakily make Amnesiac!Ren's life as comfortable as he can by dropping by the lab and doing nice things when no-one's looking. And Ren would be pretty fucking feral by this point, so I just imagine it'd be a bit like trying to look after an abused wild animal. "Okay, I'll just sneak him some nice food-- aaaaand he just tried to bite off my fingers. Swell!" At least Ren would come to appreciate it more once the experiments stop and he gets his head on a bit straighter and acts more human haha. :P

And Gaius! Yes, he's an extremely complicated and fascinating character, once the game finally gives him a chance to step outside his initial role. I agree, there is a lot of intriguing potential for the concept of him and Ren working as... psuedo-allies, kind of. Or at least forced on the same side, from the start. As I mentioned in a reply to a comment-- Wyvern would actually have 0 loyalty to the empire, since he'd just think of them as the fucks that tortured him. But he doesn't know what else to do (no memories at all! where's he gonna go??) and also he's obsessed with Zenos and being what Zenos wants and staying beside him in general, soooo... Imperialism it is, I guess??? (Not that Zenos is actually loyal to the empire either lol) But it would be very interesting if Wyvern prompts Gaius to start doubting everything he thought he knew... >:3 Add Zenos into the mix and we have the potential for... something, I dunno! But it's certainly exciting and probably very chaotic!

I wish I had more I could say about all that and the Wyvern AU in general, especially since you're so intrigued by it, but it's very half-baked at the moment since it was just an "OOH WHAT IF..." thought that got a bit out of hand lol. I still have, y'know... (gestures to the monolithic mountain of canon content) ALL OF THAT to get through first in the regular ol' timeline haha! But I really appreciate hearing your thoughts, since it does give me some very interesting ideas if I ever do plan on writing anything about it... >:3

I recently had to buy myself a new drawing tablet, so maybe I should break it in by drawing some stuff for this AU... hmmm!

EDIT: Oh! But I can say that Wyvern would probably make an initial impression among the Eorzeans (and the Scions) as being the Empire's scary new human weapon. THEIR ULTIMA WEAPON, IF YOU WILL. HAW HAW. (it even eats Primals!)

#ask

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owlespresso · 1 year ago

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do u have any fic/author recs at the moment? for any of ur fandoms!

TONS, but here's a short list of authors and fics that I adore. All of the following authors are absolute inspirations to me and I thank them for putting their creations into the world, for us to read.

Just a heads up, I adore dark content so a lot of the writers and fics I will recommend will contain said content.

@seoafin writes for Jujutsu Kaisen, but they also have some writings for Trigun. Their characterizations are incredibly on point and I adore their takes on Geto and Gojo, including the dynamics between them + the protagonist of their AU ripverse.

@strawberrygodzilla has a fic about Zenos that BEATS ASS and their character voice for Zenos (and every other character including the WOL) is so clear and accurate like every time they write Zenos's dialogue I'm like... "wow, he really WOULD say that". I've teared up several times reading their fic here, at the end of all things.

@chickenparm, whose profile I religiously check on ao3 and just discovered has a blog on tumblr, writes BANGER Genshin fanfics with to die for smut. Their fics about Childe are among my favorite. Give of Yourself has stuck with me in particular.

@softagenda has been providing the Touchstarved fandom with easily some of its best fanfictions, expanding on concepts introduced in the demo and adding some of their own world building. My favorite fic of theirs is silver linings.

@ddarker-dreams just has a way of writing and worldbuilding that really takes my breath away. The amount of depth and forethought put into her Blade fic, Nexus, still stuns and awes me a month after its completion. She's written heaps for Genshin Impact and is now starting on a JJK series. She also writes a lot about Chrollo Lucifer, from HxH. I haven't watched a single episode of the show, but she has somehow made me invested in this character. Whenever I see mention of him elsewhere, I go "ah, the man ddarker-dreams writes about".

@lorelune writes for Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail and JJK. I love their work but their little blurbs they post every now and then also completely have my whole heart. their hybrid AU Blade fic hell is a hound without a chain has been living in my head ever since they dropped it. I adore their characterization of Blade and Jing Yuan in particular! Their Gojo fic dawn instinct hits me so hard.

@agent-cupcake writes for FFXIV AND JJK but I found them through Fire Emblem Three Houses. I've been following their work for awhile and I adore each and every piece. Their prose is beautiful and their dark content is to die for. I'm biased so my favorite piece is Asteria, but I also am continuously obsessed with Raison D'etre, Vae Victis (FFXIV), Femme Fatale and living idly and dying as if dreaming.

@hawnks is a fantastic writer who I discovered through her soulmate AU fics. coincide and the first law of motion are absolute classics, but she's been writing a soulmate series for Gojo which has been utterly fascinating for far. I would also like to thank her for introducing me and many others to Guideverse which I would love to write something on in the future!

#others work #im owl ears

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alicelufenia · 4 months ago

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A few haphazard post-MSQ thoughts for Dawntrail

okay first of all fuck Zoraal Ja loved your trial

Dawntrail in general makes me want to go back and actually finish FFIX, and part of that is also to actually find out more about Kuja's deal. I was in vc with my static over DT ending and my co-tank pointed out Zoraal Ja's whole arc is a dead wringer for Kuja. Which makes sense based on the wiki summary I found. I just also dreaded the possibility of people comparing him more to Zenos, which thankfully, I haven't actually seen much of. But then I'm not on Twitter, and only just started exploring the tags, so maybe that take is out there. Sorry but as a dedicated Zenos Fucker I still don't see it XD not every violent man with daddy issues is a Zenos.

Speaking of daddies, it's a genuine accomplishment for Dawntrail to bring us both the BEST and WORST dads in the game. Congrats Gaius your seat at the bottom has been taken, but Man did Zoraal have to earn it.

Just one little issue. WHO IS GULOOL JA'S MOM??

I cannot believe this wasn't even at least questioned at any point, they put more words towards reasoning how he must be Zoraal's kid cause of his coloring but didn't question who his mother could be? Especially with Sphene the LITERAL QUEEN right there looking AWKWARD AS HELL when he's brought up.

My guess is this will be explored in the patches, but good GOD you thought FFXIV was shitty with its female characters, Gulool's mom wasn't even a character! Legit negative for me and any further storyline is just going to make me question why it wasn't relevant earlier.

However to shift tracks to GOOD female characters, I freakin' love Wuk Lamat! I love her design her facial expressions her voice good god her VOICE, I love her goals and how she tries to relate to her enemies but will not hold back but also won't sacrifice others to get what she wants.

I know she's every shonen protagonist rolled into an orange tabby, and that's great! They didn't stumble once with her as far as I'm concerned.

I'm probably gonna have to devote a whole other post to thoughts about Sphene and the Twelfth(?) reflection's fate. I appreciate that the stakes have been simultaneously scaled back but also shifted, I guess sideways would be the best description?

I find it interesting that the main threat is very similar to in Endwalker-that of moving on from dead end ways of living. But while Endwalker was finding a reason to go on living, Dawntrail is about finding peace with death. Cause you need both to live a happy life, and to have a society that doesn't eat itself, or everything around it.

Also a quick comment on msq-appropriate jobs; obviously any job is great, but I feel really good about sticking with both Dark Knight and Viper throughout. Viper in particular, for having both its roots in the main setting, and its capstone ability Reawaken has you call upon the memories of your hunter forbears, a kind of healthier version of the regulators' soul consumption ability. And Dark Knight is just my WoL's canon job, but also her self-styled title comes from DRK's quest title The Boundless Dark. So I HAD to finish the expansion as The Boundless Queen standing against The Queen Eternal.

Unfortunately, the Neo-Ishgardian Top didn't get the texture upgrade, so it clashes a bit too much. I'm gonna have to work out a good glam, but am using the Fallen set plus pieces of the Neo Kingdom Fending set as I get them.

Viper on the other hand, is perfect as it is and I love it. I don't even have to finish the role quests except for completeness. Look at the worn folds in the leather!

Anyway those are my current thoughts, I've only since unlocked Expert roulette and will start the normal raids later tonight, and then level crafters this weekend. Time to do the mmo bit!

Edit: Also the raid series is gonna be perfect for Alice. "Time to honor the memory of your queen! With Bloodsport! Let's go Zenos!" *Shinryu minion squealing sounds*

#ffxiv #dawntrail #dawntrail spoilers #7.0 spoilers

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eemamminy-art · 3 months ago

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fanfic ask game! 14, 15, 44 😊🧡

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

I dooon't know if this is something I'd call a brotp in the sense of like bro kinda vibes, but I assume by that terminology it's just like, characters I like to imagine as good friends? And the first thing that comes to mind for me is this AU my friend and I have where Emet hides Ryne away from Hydaelyn and she ends up becoming a little sister to Zenos 🥺 When I'm thinking about platonic characters that's where my mind first goes!!

For something a little less deeply obscure and uncanon though haha I like the friendship between Vrtra and Estinien, or the potential friendship anyway, and I would like to one day write a fic of Estinien helping Vrtra get through the emotional rollercoaster of 6.X patches. In his awkward, very Estinien way.

I don't know if this counts either but I love to think about all the friendships my wol has. He has a brotherly sort of relationship with Thancred and with the thaumaturge guild masters, and a very complicated friendship with Haurchefant. Minfilia was his best friend and he's still very torn up over everything that happened to her. I want to think he was pretty close with Lyse and tries to mentor Emmanellain (even though he's just as immature himself lol) too. I pretty rarely ship oc/canon with my own OCs but I love to think of their friendships and found family!!

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Like… any f/f ship in ffxiv… They're all obscure 😭 Notably I really really like Fordola/Lyse, Ysayle/Heustienne, and M'naago/Kurenai to name a few off the top of my head. I also really like Hien/Yugiri but like, if Hien was a butch.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

This might sound weird but I feel like the more attention a ship gets the more people get weirdly hostile toward it (for being perceived as popular, or genuinely becoming popular), or otherwise start diluting the ship down to something generic. I used to really crave seeing more works from other people about ships I like but lately I'm just kind of like, let me keep them to myself and my trusted group of friends who can be normal about things 😂

Fanfiction questions

#ask meme answers #replies

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janzoo · 5 months ago

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I remembered this old (EW-spoilery) post of mine comparing Drakyr and Zenos in size and thought I'd revisit their height difference. I imported his sprite in Brio and scaled him as best as I could from the original screenshot. 1.18 seemed to be the magic number that put her rightly at the height of his second-lowest jacket buckle.

Numbers-wise, Drakyr is 5'2"/159cm, and Zenos is in the high end of 7', probably 7'9"/236cm according to this post (thank you OP for the math).

So, again...HIM LORGE.

His groin is right there.

So much power in so small a form.

I do have an AU I've never really touched on that ships Drakyr with Zenos, if only because I don't know how it would work. But Zenos is one of my fave FFXIV characters; he utterly fascinates me and hurts my heart in the best ways. So maybe I'll do something with said AU one day. (If only to write some dirty size-difference fics.)

#janzoo plays ffxiv #ffxiv #zenos galvus #my ocs #my wol #oc: drakyr saovine #oc: drakyr saovine (ref)#oc: drakyr saovine (relationships)

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koko-online · 3 months ago

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On GW2's narratives

I maintain that the reason GW2's stories always fall flat (though some more than others cough SotO cough) is that we have almost no villains.

What parts of the story do people remember most fondly? LW1, PoF, and LW4 almost universally. Y'know, the parts that came to life because of Scarlet Briar, Balthazar, and Palawa Joko. I´d also add the tearjerker at the end of EoD and saying goodbye to Aurene, but that's not relevant to the point I'm going to make.

Remember in like 8th grade English class, when your teacher talked about conflicts in storytelling? It was probably something like this.

GW2 has opted almost universally for the bottom-right quadrant : Person vs. Nature. There's nothing wrong with that type of conflict. The dragons are a force of nature more than independent living things, and the Kryptis and Titans are about the same after all was said and done with them.

But those kinds of stories are almost antithetical to the power fantasy that most MMORPGs, including GW2, rely on. The only time in the history of this game where anything felt actively hostile was in HoT's open world. So we're just left there reacting to a quasi-mindless threat with no motivations, goals, or real personality, who we know for sure we're going to defeat because it's a video game designed to be beaten with minimal effort. If we wanted to call the antagonistic forces a "natural disaster", they would be the equivalent of a pretty mild rainshower. Not exactly a compelling story.

Before I move into villains, I want to address why Society and Self would also make uninteresting conflicts in this case. In both cases, it requires ANET to define our character's personality, goals, and convictions more than they already have. This leaves players feeling disconnected from any sort of potential narrative roleplay. Additionally, in the former's case, it would require ANET to make a profound political message, which I don´t think they are capable of.

That leaves us with Person vs. Person. Here's where villains come in.

Villain-centric stories are almost a cheat code for MMORPGs. Look at Lilith from FFXI, Shiro Tagachi and Khilbron from GW1, the Lich King from WoW, Emet Selch (everyone's favourite sexy grampa) and Zenos from FFXIV.

They allow you to tell a full and complete character-driven story without writing our characters for us or having to write them as cartoons so that they stand out (literally every one of our main party members in GW2). You're forced to define your character in comparison or contrast to the villain's aims, means, and/or convictions.

We found out later that Scarlet Briar was an agent of Modremoth, but at the time, we thought she was some batshit genius! We saw and reacted to the shit she was doing through the lens of trying to understand her. It made the world feel big and fragile and mysterious.

We met Balthazar as he deceived us, and we had to reckon with a god's view of life vs. our own.

Palawa Joko, I mean, nuff said, he's the best character writing we've ever had in this game and he was taken out of GW1. And he was played half for laughs!

When we don´t have strong antagonist writing, we're left with just a beige sea of allies who have no real philosophical underpinnings. Of course they're against the threat, it's killing them, what else? I don´t even know any of the SotO characters names because I can´t care about them. They're faceless randoms who simply act as agents of Isgarren. Okay. Who cares?

I am 1000000% certain that the writing team at ANET follows my inane tumblr blog closely, so please, take my advice and give us a mirror.

#gw2 #guild wars 2

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driftward · 11 months ago

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Title: Connection Characters: Zoissette Vauban, Y'shtola Rhul, Thancred Waters, Klynt Gohtawyn Rating: Teen Summary: Zoissette does her best to make sure Y'shtola is taken care of after her encounter with Zenos Notes: StB period, shortly after Zeno's attack on Rhalgr's reach. This started as two separate works, one of which was an FFXIV Write Entry.

She looked so frail.

It was startling. Zoissette had gotten so used to her strength. From how tall she held her head, to how sure she was in herself, and how her confidence was usually imbued in every ilm of herself, her power obvious in her posture, her self-assuredness present in every gesture. Even when she was soft, gentle smiles and warm touches, she was still strong.

She was Y'shtola.

And now she was lying in the infirmary, her skin pale, her body still, her breathing deep and labored, her eyes unopening.

Zoissette's fingers twitched, and she found herself unable to stop herself from replaying the memory in her mind. Garlean soldiers everywhere as she crested the path to see Y'shtola fallen, and that monster standing over her.

She had tried to fend him off, but to no avail. Her mind had scattered, and she very nearly followed it in the ensuing fight. She still had no idea what had convinced him to move off. The advantage was his, and he could have pressed for a terrible victory.

Instead, he and his forces withdrew, leaving her and hers to pick up the shattered pieces of what was left of the resistance.

And in this small room, it felt as though there were the shards of her heart.

She wondered if this would forever be her fate. To always be the one left standing when those she loved and cared about around her fell, when those she was trying to keep from harm were still, somehow, the ones to absorb it.

She shook her head. She could feel sorry for herself later.

Krile was elsewhere, asleep, for now. They had done all that they could for Y'shtola. The rest, as they so often said, was up to her. As Zoissette surveyed the room, she saw Thancred as he sat in a chair next to his long time friend, resting his head on his hands, still awake. He looked behind him at Zoissette as she finally entered the rest of the way. She was still nursing her own injuries, but found herself unwilling to stay away.

"Ah," he said, starting to stand up. "You may have my chair, if you wish. I was just going."

The polite part of her would have thanked him quietly and bid him good night.

"No you were not," said Zoissette as she moved to the other side of the bed, her eyes tracing over Y'shtola's injuries.

"...I suppose I wasn't," he replied, settling back into his chair.

Zoissette looked at Y'shtola with a practiced eye. She was no chirurgeon, but she was a Nymian scholar, with many summers of practice behind her. She knew what to look for, and what could be done, and as near as she could tell, Krile and the others had done all that they could, and had done it well, at that.

She felt that she could do more.

She wished she could call upon Foxglove, but that was no longer an option.

Instead, the words of a handmaid from a lifetime ago whispered in her.

She clumsily hefted her grimoire to a side table to get it out of the way. Her left arm was still healing, but that was of no matter to her.

Though it did remind her of one of her an early misadventure where Y'shtola had needed to look after her afterwards. She smiled thinly at the memory.

Well. She would try to return the favor.

"I am going to be attempting a bit of hedge magickry," she said quietly to Thancred. "It will not be pleasant."

Thancred shifted in his seat, and looked up at her darkly from under his bangs. After a moment, he dipped his head to nod, just once.

"What do you need from me?"

Through hell and hells. Good man.

"Do not let me fall on her if I lose myself," said Zoissette, reaching a hand out towards Y'shtola.

Thancred stood up on the other side of the bed, and got near, ready to act.

"I am beginning," she said, as she closed her eyes, and gently touched Y'shtola's shoulder.

Hedge magicks were any of a number of informal practices practiced throughout all lands. Minor magicks, capable of no great miracles, but nevertheless a means to an ends for many people. They were, of course, considered heresy in Zoissette's homeland, but a minor heresy oft overlooked. A cantrip to starting a fire was simply too useful to punish, for example, or the simple gust of wind a wandering mummer might use to add flourish to his performance.

Or a medicine woman providing succor to those who could not spare the time to wait for a proper conjurer or chirurgeon to arrive from the Holy See.

Zoissette had learned hers from one such woman, her handmaid, Lavender, who hailed from Gridania. She had been taught the basics of sympathetic magicks, of how to ask for the land's grace, and hear the whispers of elements through the world.

She was not very good at it. It leaned greatly on intuition and feel, and Zoissette far preferred logic and the cold certainty of encoded symbols, but without Foxglove, her preferred approach was far diminished.

So she reached for that oldest of tools, and she reached out to attempt a connection with Y'shtola. Often, reaching out like this was slow and meticulous, as the aether had to be convinced to pass through the boundaries between beings. A connection, spiritual, emotional, as well as the physical of the touch, so that living aether could wax and wane and flow across that boundary between healer and patient. Zoissette was surprised, then, at how smoothly the boundary between them thinned, the aether beginning to flow nearly immediately.

A testament to how bad Y'shtola's injuries were, she surmised, that her body was so ready to cross the barrier, but she could not spare the effort to speculate further. What would come next would require all of her attention.

She gently reached through the weaves of life to find the injuries in Y'shtola's body.

And she did. She could feel them as she went along. Trickles in her veins, cold at first, but then warmer as she delved deeper. Her breathing quickened, as the heat turned to spikes, slivers scraping themselves along her insides, as she took some of Y'shtola's aether and pain into herself. The nature of the healing of sympathetic magic was to shift aether between the injured and the healthy, to convince damaged humors that their home was here rather than there, and replacing it with healthy, fresh aether that did not carry the memory of the wound. It was slow healing, and rarely complete for but the mildest of wounds, but it could convince a body otherwise lost that it had a chance to recover, and speed already tended injuries along.

Even as the practitioner had to take on that pain themselves. It had to be done slowly, drawing it out, giving themselves a chance to soothe fouled humors. Shifting still aethers to flow, and soothing angry ones to calm, before allowing them to settle once more. It was a risk. Many were the hedge mage that saved a life only to be overwhelmed and lose their own as instead of healing and soothing, they simply recreated the wounds in themselves wholesale.

Zoissette felt the cold blade in her chest, and for a brief moment, she was Y'shtola, in those last moments, feeling the desperation, the need to protect others, the knowledge that she would not hold but for every second that she did not fold was another second for her friends and allies, staring up at the face of that monster, wondering in awe at such puissant strength, wondering whence he got such power, but refusing to yield willingly before it -

And then the shattering, and the parting of her breath from her chest, and falling into unconsciousness, and a final thought, that she had done what she could.

You have to let go.

She knew she had to let go.

She was aware that her teeth were clenched tight enough that she could feel it in her jaw all the way down through her neck. She was still touching Y'shtola, her hand was still on Y'shtola's shoulder, she just had to pull away.

It was like trying to roll away a boulder, her arm shaking as she pulled back, one aching ilm at a time. Maintaining touch, but no longer lost in the work. She held onto the aether, stilling the humors, felt the energy trying to bring them both into the abyss, but she would not let it. She sucked air between her clenched teeth, bore down, and focused.

She was back. She still had to let go. But she would do what she started out to do before she did. Carefully. If done too fast, the aether and humors would snap back to what they last knew, and very well could make both of them worse.

"Zoissette?"

Thancred's voice was rough, and he was still near, but he hadn't interceded yet.

"I am still here," she managed to grind out. "Just... takes... time."

He did not respond, but she could sense him nearby. Alert, tense, but not interfering yet.

Good.

She proceeded forward once more, more carefully this time. She felt her way through with invisible energies, flowing through Y'shtola, unknotting twisted muscle and clearing damaged tissue. She pushed her feelings through troubled aether and smoothed it out, calmed it. She replaced rotted humors with clear, cool fresh ones.

It was all minor. Hedge magick could not perform miracles.

But it could provide succor.

At last, satisfied that she had done all that she could, she cried out and let go. She felt the world spin as she did so, falling, falling.

Zoissette was in the infirmary. She was on the ground. She was holding her good hand to her chest. She was sucking for air between clenched teeth. She had been stabbed in the chest.

No she had not.

She had not.

She was Zoissette.

There was a shadow over her, and she looked up.

Thancred.

He knelt next to her, a frown on his face.

"That was damn foolish," he chastised.

Zoissette just nodded, and clenched her eyes shut.

"Did not expect - did not expect such a - deep connection - not so fast. Normally... much more difficult. She - she was - she is - very hurt."

Must have been closer to the aetherial sea than any of them had thought, but she did not say that out loud. She swallowed.

"Nature - of sympathetic - magicks."

"I'm aware," he said quietly. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

"You think me unfamiliar with hedge mages?" he said.

Oh.

Worldly Master Waters. Of course she would not need to explain further to him. He had almost certainly met any number of practitioners of esoteric arts in his travels. So she just nodded, and pressed her hand to her chest.

She would be feeling that pain for a while.

"Do I need to get Krile?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. All of our energy should be - should be on Y'shtola. I shall be fine."

She felt him pulling on her arm, and she reluctantly allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

"All the same, I think you should be returning to your own bed."

She looked over at Y'shtola, and he sighed. "I promise she'll be looked after."

Zoissette hesitated, and then nodded. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," he said. "I'm going to tell Klynt about this."

Zoissette groaned, and that got a faint smile out of him.

She hesitated before leaving, to watch the swell and fall of Y'shtola's breast, noticing how much smoother and easier it seemed to be now. And it may have been her imagination, but it seemed there was a bit more color to her face.

Well, she hurt like the hells, and would be carrying that for a while. But she had not told a lie. She would be fine.

Reluctantly, she sloughed off to her own bed. And hoped that it would be devoid of dreams.

~*~

They would be leaving soon. The Alliance would dig in and hold the line, and the Vanguard of Light would make for Doma, to hopefully open a new front against the Garlean empire, free a nation, and in so doing, relieve pressure on Ala Mhigo.

She should have been researching. Learning everything she could about the culture she would be seeing soon, and developing stratagems that could help them win the day.

Her heart was not in it.

Instead, her heart was here, in an infirmary under a banner of war, her eyes closed, and the rise and fall of her chest slower than it should have been.

Zoissette set her codex on the nightstand next to where Y'sthola yet lay unconscious. She could not go to Doma. Not like this. Not with things the way they were.

But that was where the mission was. She could not stay. Nor could she let herself remain distracted. Her lack of focus had cost the Alliance one battle, and dearly, at that.

Pen scribbled forms on paper, enchanted inks forming intricate geometry.

She could not remain here, not in person. But she could stay connected. It would not be easy. The distances would be great, too far for linkpearls, too far for most magics.

But Zoissette had tools at her disposal that most did not.

The spine of her codex had a fine filigree of metal inlaid through it, ending in a spiral on the top of the book. Into that spiral, Zoissette carefully inlaid one of the crystals of light which she bore.

It was a risk, she knew. With the elemental circle missing its member, the blessing of light would be incomplete, and she might find herself once more at the mercy of an Ascian bent on her doom.

But this war seemed more a matter of men than a matter for the paragons of eld, and anyroad, she had faced the Ascians before, and would face them again. If she had to do so as merely herself, then so be it.

The crystal's light glowed softly as it came to hover in the middle of the spiral. Light flowed like liquid from the crystal, into the spiral, down the spine of her codex, and then it lit the geometries, powering her spell. The other crystals of light resonated with it. One of them, she placed into a second codex that had been prepared in ways similar to the first. That codex would allow her to share aether and cast enchantments across the distance. Another, she placed into a pocket, where she could monitor it more easily. It did not have the same capabilities as her codex, but it would allow her to check in quickly, and could be used for simpler matters, such as communication.

The rest she tucked away. The blessing of light at half strength, for now. With the two crystals she had employed, she could, in a pinch, put them back into service as part of the blessing.

The last would stay here with Y'shtola.

A risk.

But she was worth it. And if the crystal of light, fought and bled for, was so precious, then how much more precious was this life it would help her guard?

And if her decisions caused her downfall, well. She trusted Klynt and Nyx and others aside. Someone else would see to the work. They would get the job done.

At last, a test. She focused, and shifted into the space between, traveling as far away from Ala Mhigo as she knew, arriving at the Limsa Lominsa aetheryte. Quickly she made her way to her quarters there, which were kept in her name, even as she was away. Privileges of her former life in the Maelstrom, and an affordance from a grateful Admiral.

And in that room, where she had lived for a short time as her journey took her from adventurer to Warrior of Light, she tested her codex. The crystal of light was aligned, her preparations total, and she sought out its sibling through the distance.

The connection was made. She tested it with a simple healing spell, and felt it touch Y'shtola, despite the distance. She could sense the familiarity of that connection, from crystal to crystal, between her and her friend.

Too far for linkpearl, so once she was done, she gathered up her energy, and shifted through the aetherial sea once more, to arrive at the aetheryte in Rhalgr's Reach and rushing to Y'shtola's side.

The spell had left its mark.

She had been successful.

She sagged in relief, nearly weeping, a weight not quite lifting from her shoulders, but resettling into a way that she could carry it.

Now. Now, she could leave this place, and do the job demanded of her.

They would set sail soon, and she would go with them, as now she knew she could leave an important part of herself behind.

She went to sleep that night, restful. To prepare for the journey ahead.

~*~

Klynt was sitting on Zoissette.

Well, sort of sitting, sort of lying.

Sort of lying, sort of having to keep shifting to maintain her locks and holds.

Klynt had Zoissette pinned neatly beneath her in her hammock, where she could get up to no further trouble.

Zoissette wiggled a bit under her. "Get off, Klynt."

"No."

Zoissette was the sort of person who did not handle being idle for long periods of time very well. Oh, sure, she had a soldier's discipline about things like standing watch or keeping a lookout, and she could be occupied for bells with the right book. But she was a woman wound up with the kind of energy that could only be let loose by trying to find some way to be helpful (annoying), or sticking her nose in places she should not be (obnoxious), or by climbing up the ship's rigging, getting to the top of the yardarm, declaring herself queen of all she surveyed, and promptly diving into the drink (entertaining, but also exasperating).

Captain Carvallain had been amused, but he had a ship to run. So he had asked Klynt to intervene, and she had.

Zoissette was still for now, staring at the ceiling, all limp noodle arms and legs, but Klynt had been fooled by that act once. So even as Klynt carefully picked her way through a trashy romance novel, she kept one eye on the canny Elezen, looking for any sign of possible mischief.

A glint of light caught Klynt's eye, coming from one of Zoissette's many pockets, and she felt Zoissette stiffen. She shifted her weight, prepared for yet another bout of strenuous activity to keep the woman pinned.

"Klynt, off," said Zoissette, in a tone of voice some small part of Klynt vaguely recognized as danger.

"Are ye gonna be-"

Zoissette somehow twisted under her, and Klynt learned several things in rapid succession.

One, apparently, Zoissette had been pulling her punches more than she had thought.

Two, the Elezen was willing to fight dirty.

Three, there was no space or time for three, as a loud clap thundered very specifically on her left side, and the same ear was roaring pain, and the ship felt as though it had dumped itself sideways and was now in freefall just before she hit the deck. Zoissette was free, and so was she, and they were both out of the hammock, and she clawed up a hand, intent on grappling Zoissette to the deck-

She got a kick to the soft spot in her armpit for her efforts that drove her whole arm cold, followed by a knee to the solar plexus. Zoissette rolled off her, and Klynt was just as fast to get up, roaring, ducking her head, tackling Zoissette to th-

Zoissette had rolled with it, and now Klynt became aware of an almost oppressive freezing miasma rolling off the woman's very essence, choking the air somehow. Or maybe that was just her imagination from the impressive throat chop Zoissette had managed to drive the full force of her roll into. It may've collapsed the windpipe of a lesser woman. As it was, there was a moment of black, and Klynt was gasping, and she felt a strong kick to the side of her knee as Zoissette got back up again.

Klynt rolled to what was now her one good knee, hand to her throat, gasping. She felt the tide retreat, and looked up just in time to see Zoissette with a glowing crystal in her hand, sprinting for the door, and somehow the most galling part was that Zoissette was not running -from- her. She was just running -to- somewhere, Klynt now completely ignored.

And then she was gone.

Klynt took a few moments to get her bearings. A small part of her wondered what just happened. That was not Zoissette she had fought. That was some kind of otherworldly thing, all lightning-snap-fast kraken tentacles and deep ocean void and promises that there was enough space in the depths for two.

A larger part of her felt the storm rise in her chest. She had not been nearly diligent enough, and Zoissette had caught her unawares, and that was on her but the consequences were absolutely going to be on that damnable Elezen's head once she caught back up to her. Klynt growled as she came to her feet, and stormed out after where Zoissette had gone, too angry to notice that the deckhands were already frightened by the time she got out there.

She spun on the bosun. "Where the -hells- did she go," she snarled, and they just shook their head slightly and pointed to the hatch that led to the cargo area, currently having been left open.

She stalked over. She would have charged, but that kick to the knee had hurt and she was going to walk it off before she shoved her boot right up Zoissette's ass. Klynt spilled into the lower decks, past crew members who were still hugging the wall in the wake of Zoissette's path, until she was in one of the void spaces where nobody hardly ever went.

She could see a hatch that had been left part way open, and she nearly pulled it off its hinges. Whatever state she found Zoissette in, she was going to make it worse for the trouble. She stomped over the threshold.

The storm inside of her breast rumbled, and then held, suddenly still in that moment before the torrents could be unleashed and hell be wrought. Its energies did not fade, but they shifted, turning to tight arcs that lanced into her limbs and locked them into the static that laid in the air just so, promising ill omens to those on the ground.

Zoissette was crouched in a corner. Here, in the deepest, darkest, and coldest part of the ship. A place where nobody went. And she was curled up in on herself, her hands cupping the light of a crystal, her shoulders shaking. The hold was filled with the soft sound of her sobbing.

The storm died out into rains inside Klynt. She approached Zoissette slowly, carefully, wary, reaching a trembling hand out. She did not know what this was, she did not understand what was going on, but fury had been replaced with worry, and it was her duty as a friend to find out more.

"...Zoey?" she said, softly, and Zoissette turned towards her slowly, all ugly sobbing, her face wet with tears and snot running down it already in the short time she had been down here. She saw Klynt, and she hiccoughed, and she was laughing around the tears, her face was split near in two with her smile, and she was rocking back and forth, unable to contain herself.

It took her several tries to say the words in a way that Klynt could understand, but she kept trying until she did, and Klynt managed to tease the words out from the noise and the blubbering.

"She's awake."

And the clouds pulled back and the waters receded and the rains flooded the low places and Klynt collapsed, wrapping herself around her friend, hugging her tight, even as she said those words several more times, and now Klynt understood.

"She's awake. She's awake. She's awake."

#final fantasy xiv #zoissette vauban #y'shtola rhul #thancred waters #klynt gohtawyn #a campfire tale #heart tending #202311-15 #biot writes

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sebille · 6 months ago

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(Don’t send me spoilers.) GOD I want to know what the hell Zenos thinks about his dad being fine w an Ascian taking over his body

#Look I know that he took his own life and like spied on his own gravesite #but i can't imagine him being okay with that?#I mean I don't think that he's ... THAT patriotic to the Garlean empire?#Like I know that he ordered some rather.#....#...#bad........#things for the sake of Garlemald but I haven't gotten any patritic vibes from him #Zenos feels like the type of character who serves himself and himself only #and will do what he believes would best gain him #well #what he wants #idk #Agnes ffxiv adventures

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msviolacea · 2 years ago

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A not-so-short word vomit on a complaint I saw about 6.3. It was just a couple of people, so this is definitely not a “why is fandom like this” sort of thing, but the conversation I saw just made me think and I don’t have the time or energy to engage in a direct back and forth on Discord right now. So, I word vomit here, as one does.

I saw a thing the other day (here? Twitter? who knows, time is an illusion and brain cells are in short supply) that asked if you’re the kind of person who came to FFXIV from Dragon Age versus ... somewhere else. I am obviously from the Dragon Age side of things. And if there’s one thing DA fandom taught me, it’s that a game suffers when all players are expected to know what happens in ancillary non-video game materials in order to fully appreciate the story. Thus, I come down hard on the side of “what the game itself says is exactly what the characters should be expected to know and reference.”

And the FFXIV spoilers begin below. Assume spoilers for everything through 6.3 here.

So 6.3 - and 6.2 to a lesser extent, thanks to Zero - is full of references to Zenos and, quite frankly, what a terrible person he was. And that’s perfectly understandable, given what everyone knows about him in game. (And even what we know about him out of game, but more on the nuance of that later.) Yes, our WoL knows that he made one big gesture at the end of his life that helped us save the world. That’s great! But after that, he immediately challenged us to a fight and very nearly killed us - would have killed us if not for semi-divine intervention. Because in the end, he didn’t come to the end of the universe because he’d discovered a conscience. He came because he was a deeply selfish man who only cared about getting One Perfect Fight, and Alisaie’s words stuck in his head only to the point of “well if I do a thing for them, they’ll do a thing for me.” He only progressed to the point of understanding equivalent exchange in a similar way to the voidsent of the 13th.

That may have been vaguely fine for a character in another position, but he was supposedly running a country. Whether he wanted that is something else entirely, and we’ll get to a bit of Emet Selch and his crimes in a bit, but regardless of what he wanted, he had an obligation, and he failed it entirely - he refused to even consider it. And an entire nation suffered for his lack of care. That was one of the points of this patch. We met Zero in 6.2, learned that she’d been attached to Zenos against her will. That was mostly background to the rest of the dragon and void stuff in that patch, but in this patch, we bring her to Garlemald, where she sees more of the consequences of Zenos’s selfishness, outside of her own situation. And after observing us, our friends, and the people of Garlemald trying their best to survive together, she shows that she can choose something different - that despite the many, many years of darkness and selfishness she’s had to survive in the 13th, she has the capacity to desire something different.

Maybe Zenos would have displayed that same capacity if he’d had more time. But that wasn’t the story this game was telling. Not every character is going to get the same opportunities.

Not every villain gets to be redeemed.

I understand that we have a relatively robust history of redeemed villains in this game, compared to others of its kind. But that’s been a mixed bag. Emet Selch is one of the best examples of villains in general in the video game genre - the game itself showed exactly why he was the way he was, without excusing the atrocities that he committed along the way. (Fandom is a different story on the excusing - I am deeply uncomfortable with the “but he didn’t see humans as equals” argument being used in earnest - but that’s a different post.) And then they gave us an opportunity to see who he was before the sundering, before the trauma, and that once his full memory was restored and he had the opportunity to understand the full scope of what happened, he would gladly (though with characteristic grumbling) help us put the world to rights before his truly final curtain call.

Zenos did not have the same narrative opportunities. If that disappoints you, I understand. But it’s not a failure of the game, it’s just a narrative decision.

(Briefly - Gaius is a very, VERY different story, and one that I think is actually a failure of the game’s narrative. Gaius Baelsar should have remained dead, and the person we met in the Burn should have been an entirely different Garlean leader who defected and decided to help us. That one change would have saved that entire storyline.)

But, Zenos. We, as players, have the opportunity to read some ancillary materials to understand more about him. Side stories, lore books - we find he was neglected as a child, raised by narcissists and molded to be the person he was, to a certain extent. We can sympathize, we can understand the narrative threads that denied him a real chance at being a good person. But do not confuse what we the players know - or even the space the game writers give us to play with our headcanons - with the knowledge and opinions the characters should reasonably be expected to express in in-game dialogue.

What does the Warrior of Light know about Zenos in game, through actual in-game sources? He’s the great-grandson of Solus/Emet, his father was a xenophobic zealot, he gave zero shits about anything other than fighting and let a lot of really shitty people do his governing for him, he killed a ton of people and threatened many, many more, the Ascians brought him back to life and as soon as he got his body back, he allied with Fandaniel and let a civil war turn Garlemald into a smoking crater just so they could get to Zodiark, and when Fandaniel used Zodiark for his own purposes, he just shrugged and went wandering on his own because nothing in Garlemald was any use to him anymore. That’s pretty much it. Yes, he came to our aid at the moment we needed it most, but he did so for his own ends, and we gave him what he wanted. You can headcanon the reason why your WoL did so, but that doesn’t change the basic facts we know from in-game sources.

Your WoL doesn’t canonically know anything about his childhood. And, quite frankly, even if they did, do you think it would be reasonable to “well actually” Zero and the Garleans in dialogue at this point?

Zenos is a tragedy. Zenos also caused tragedy, and those two concepts can coexist in our minds as players. But in-game characters can’t be expected to view Zenos in a sympathetic light, not even our WoL. External lore sources are not in-game lore. Our headcanons are not in-game lore. The writers cannot avoid every single instance of our dialogue possibly deviating from our headcanons, not without eliminating dialogue entirely.

(There’s an ancillary topic here, about how the current shape of the world makes it very inadvisable for writers who give a shit about society to gloss over atrocities committed by a rich ogliarch in their narrative, no matter what players headcanon about that character, but that’s an aside to the points I’m making. But while I’m all in for villain-fucking and blorbo-appreciation in a fannish space, fandom is a totally different space than canon.)

In the end, Zenos died a villain. A complicated, interesting one who made a fascinating decision at the end of his life, but a villain nonetheless. We can do whatever we want with him in fandom - that’s what fanworks are for. And we can be disappointed that the canon narrative doesn’t share our points of view. But we should also understand that there are very good reasons for those POVs, and that not sharing our POV is not a failure of the narrative.

#jaime plays ffxiv #ffxiv #ffxiv spoilers #6.3 spoilers #that's a lot of words #but they were in my head #and needed to get out #i am a big proponent of divorcing your own feelings about a character #from what is good or expected from the narrative that's being told

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