#about how gd stupid they are compared to the Civilized citygoers and scholars

[shivasdarknight]

I've got something to add to this, but first for the above screen:

[Image ID: a screenshot of a list of tumblr tags from battleonthebigbridge that says: #thinking abt this and like #estinien has consistently shown himself to be one of the warmest and kindest characters in the game #like he understands people and their woes #he might not understand all the theoretical know how of the scions #and he does have his silly moments #but he is definitely not the brash angry violent type #he's a man that survived and in his desperation he clung to revenge #but even now he embraces that nidhogg is a part of him #and is ultimately using that strength that was once used for vengance to protect people and do better by them #he cares about others so much #i love him #he's not dumb #it's just a different kind of intelligent in how he understands people and their emotions #holds him #he walked through hell and became gentler for it #he's great #ray's rambles #ffxiv #estinien #estinien varlineau #estinien wyrmblood /.End ID]

What gets to me about how Estinien is characterized is it's taken two routes based on his major appearances in HVW and ENW: extremely violent and possessive brute, or extremely dumb farm boy who doesn't know what's going on. It completely erases what makes him compelling as a character, because he really is one of the most emotionally intelligent and frankly emotionally mature members of the Scions - we just were introduced to him during one of the worst parts of his life.

The Dragoon quests confirm the fact that every single Azure Dragoon - past or present - is fed Nidhogg's emotions upon being chosen by the Eye. For Estinien to have this overwhelming trauma of a violently orphaned child that now has a feedback loop of a thousand years of revenge-fueled grief, of course he's not going to be completely together! Of course he's going to lash out because the Ishgardian State looked at this orphaned kid and said "yeah, let's abuse his trauma and make him into a single minded killer". The HVW levequests confirm that Dragoons intentionally look for orphans of war and retraumatize them repeatedly through training on top of discouraging them from doing anything But that since they have such a high mortality rate. The See raised and trained a bunch of child soldiers who expected to die in service of their nation - no shit Estinien doesn't have any hobbies once he's out of HVW because he never thought he'd live to see the end of the war. But now that Nidhogg's anger and rage as eased up and given him a clearer head and that emptiness of a fulfilled revenge...guy's got his whole life ahead of him. Of course he's a bit goofy with food and other stuff; because he now gets to. He doesn't have to worry about that stuff. Of course he's a bit generous with his money, he never really made worldly attachments so it doesn't matter to him and we see that in 6.1 with the map. He didn't walk into a scam, he knew it was a scam - he just also knew that those two kids were banking on the scam to survive. This is also where we learn that the person who sold us the lassi was struggling to make ends meet - along with everyone else in the market.

Everyone assumes he's financially illiterate because he was a farm boy and that just frankly isn't something I vibe with due to how people view rural folks and their ability. Just because he's not from the city doesn't mean he's stupid. The illiterate jokes also aren't funny since it's a genuine issue even today. No, he may not be as strongly literate as the Scions, but it doesn't mean he's illiterate and thus dumb for it. You can be illiterate and still be very smart, we're just in an era where we've pretentiously tied the two skills together. The best character comparison to draw with him is from another franchise and a guy that's also emotionally intelligent but often written off as extremely stupid: Dante, if you're at all familiar with Devil May Cry. The story goes out of its way to show the fact that Dante does know what he's doing with money, he just doesn't care about himself as much as other people. He budgeted to save for his jacket in 5, but his paycheck gets split up between paying Lady back, paying off property damage, giving Trish a livable wage, and sneaking a fair amount of money to his nephew who won't accept it directly. He's not bad with money, he just doesn't care about the things we expect him to care about - like lights, running water, or frivolous purchases. Estinien reads very similar to this, since he seems content just living with what he's got on him now. Why keep money when it could go to someone who actually needs it?

The guy's deeply empathetic because of all he's been through. He's rural born and raised, but that doesn't make him stupid. He may not be a scholar like the rest of the Scions, but he's also about the only one who knows how to actually deal with emotionally fraught people due to living that - second would be Thancred, who also gets the stupid treatment from the fandom. Estinien's really good with kids, he apparently visits that orphanage that was built after 6.1, and not to mention he let himself get dragged around the star by Orn Khai who wanted to go traveling. He's sentimental - naming his spear after his mirror, Nidhogg, his armor after Ysayle, and he cannot stop looking at stuff in Radz when you're exploring with him and comparing it back to Aymeric - but he's also reserved. He's not one to extend himself due to past hurt, but that doesn't mean he's calloused.

The guy's a lot smarter than people give him credit for because he's predominantly emotionally intelligent - but he's also not stupid because he's from rural Coerthas. Folks really need to stop hearing rural/farm/illiterate/can't read and hearing dumb when that's the furthest from the truth. Because if we want to argue period appropriate literacy, most people could actually read - and if they couldn't, they had someone read for them. Didn't make them stupid. Reading was done by reading out loud as the silent reading we do today was exceptionally rare. Writing is a separate skill that was less common, and if you're not familiarized with it as a child the act is very physically painful. So applying this to Estinien, the guy can read, probably does read, and even if he doesn't that doesn't make him stupid. If he learned to write as an adult, he likely avoids it because it physically hurts (i at least write that as the case).

tl;dr: the guy's not stupid and emotional intelligence and illiteracy doesn't mean shit, especially in a setting like this. give him more credit, he's a 32yo orphan who lost everything to a petty war and then was used by his nation - chewed up and spat out - who gave him no skills to sustain himself beyond the ability to kill dragons really well. he clearly cares about others and he does so because he now has the chance to - and it's that exactly in the tags "he walked through hell and became gentler for it".

not me thinking abt how estinien is consistently one of the most emotionally intelligent characters (at least when it comes to other people) we have yet this is constantly forgotten or minimized