#ffxiv hildibrand quest spoilers

[sainsa-in-eorzea]

what even are these quests

[candycryptids]

Was doing Endwalker Hildibrand with my favorite guy and made an off-hand remark that Tuesday and Brandihild should kiss. It’s only the gentlemanly thing to do. And Tuesday can relate to being a kinda-not-quite Clone that has crazy amounts of calculating power. ….. and I wanted them to kiss.

Shaders are Kore's [Lay Here] and [It Felt So Real] + also Ixora's [Have I Always Loved You] AND I used [This Pose] Cut for some..... Hm... Brandihild had... He was…. Troublesome to pose.... [CW: Face Horror]

It’s wonderful that I was given two hands so I could make art.

I can’t say with certainty if this is truly crack or if it’s a whirlwind romance, destined to end in a tragic sacrifice. Like his first romance. He must have a type. Or a curse. Someone cast Esuna on this poor guy. Also HUGE love to the guy who made the pose I used it only took some nudgy adjustments. Also, for some reason Brandihild hates Ktisis. Can’t figure why, but he behaved when I used Anamnesis, so thank you to them too uvu I would’ve never achieved my silly flight of fancy otherwise.

Also please consider this my rent lowering gunshots fired or something. I have never been serious in my whole life and I’m not about to start now uvu; I’m out for a good time, not a long time

[nini-dirthara-lothlenanas]

The Danger Sport Saga continues!

[disciple-of-frost]

.:Auraugust2024 - Flex:.

In full knowledge of the fact that hijinks of subjective hilarity will ensure, you engage Nashu in conversation... Tala certainly keeps some interesting company sometimes. She has a good time so that's all that matters to me.

(Took this back in 6.25 so it's a oldie, but it fit way too well.)

Auraugust Prompt List

[sexybritishllama]

thank you to ceetol ja for being the only person on this goddamn star who respects my TIME

[finishing-touch]

Love this lil' stinker, the cheese lala

[acidxshark]

The Gentlewoman Adventurer, Aigead Siorc

As I'm getting back into an FFXIV groove (in part because I'm revving up to resume my NG+ stream), I'm starting to fall back in love with my WoL again. Aigead Siorc is the culmination of a lot of self-projection and "hey wouldn't it be funny if…"-style character development. Some fun facts about her:

She's a firedrake who ate a fantasia thinking it was a weird egg. Came out the other side a male Au Ra but realized after the events of ARR that she didn't feel comfortable as she was and thus fantasia'd into a female Viera.

She can hear the background music. Her training as a Red Mage knocked something loose in her head and now her brain processes her sense for the ambient aether around her as music. Think of it as a sort of Fantasy Synaesthesia.

Comes off as a bit of an airhead, but is quite adept at puzzle solving and thinking on her feet. Generally can be trusted to figure things out if you point her at a problem and tell her to wing it.

Has a penchant for grand introductions and a sense of dramatic flair. The Hildibrand quests are a big part of her canon so you can probably guess where she gets that from.

Very active, job-wise. Her canon jobs include Monk, Red Mage, Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, and Sage. In specific circumstances, she's also been portrayed as a White Mage or a Reaper.

Likes and collects Cool Bottles

Her entire personality spun out of a line I thought up once I unlocked GNB: "I have a SWORD with a GUN on it and SHEER FORCE OF WILL and that's ALL I'LL EVER NEED"

Came up with her name more or less on the spot when she was originally found naked in the middle of Southern Thanalan, just outside the ruins of Qarn. She claims it felt like something she'd been thinking about for a long time.

Feels a special connection to the moon and the night sky ever since she first gained sapience.

If you're interesting in learning more about Aigead Siorc and reading up on some of her adventures, I participated in FFXIVWrite last year and managed to write something for every day of the month! Check out this tweet thread for links to each story and relevant spoiler/content warnings:

[aotopmha]

Some more FFXIV thoughts with 6.45 out (and a little bit of FFXVI sprinkled in there):

Spoilers!

So, Endwalker Hildibrand has been fantastic.

The issue with earlier Hildibrand was something A Realm Reborn and Heavensward shared in general (and now turns out FF16 does, too).

There just randomly were lulls where none of the fun wierd stuff was happening and everything screeched to a halt to simply "get there".

ARR had that horrible wine quest, Heavensward the Moogle quest and FF16 the ship quest.

And none of them needed to be as long as they were.

And not like Stormblood, Shadowbringers and especially Endwalker didn't have any of that, but at least the moments there either didn't last that long or were punctuated with much more compelling story.

But those three also had stuff like Ruby Sea (in fact some would argue SB had it worse than any of the expansions, having an entire zone of bore, HW and ARR just had some slow quests), the lead-up to Vauthry and the final Labyrinthos stretch.

(And to be fair, the Moogle quest did preceed some very good reveals.)

Yeah, about a decade in and the narrative pacing still went backwards in quality from Shadowbringers to Endwalker.

But the side stuff absolutely has seen massive improvements.

Some fantastic tribe quests, especially stuff like the Omicron and Loporrit quests in Endwalker, and just simple side quests adding much more to the main narrative than they often did in earlier expansions.

(Amaurot and Elpis in particular come to mind here. But also quests like the Tataru and Omega ones that have much more effort put in them than pretty much any others.)

I would argue the Alliance Raid in Endwalker is the first time an Alliance Raid story is relevant in just the right way, not minimal setup like Crystal Tower, but interesting story that is important, but not *too* important to the point where you can't experience the main story without it.

And to finally come to 6.45, Hildbrand has been part of that, as well, I think. Just so much better pacing between the zany and the mundane.

This latest Hildi quest was just a fantastic parody of the alien origin trope. I was laughing the entire way through the "reveal" sequence. So stupid. So wonderful.

Brandihild is also an absolute stroke of genius.

This entire questline is a great vehicle for the space theme of Endwalker.

But going back to more general talk, I really hope they just seriously work on the general pacing of the main expansions from this point on.

It doesn't need to be the longest story with the most content, all parts just need to flow together really well and be really well written.

The fact that 16 couldn't learn from ShB makes me sad, too. You can really tell it started development right after Heavensward because I think it basically shares pretty much all of the writing issues with ARR and HW in particular.

And maybe some of it isn't as bad as it seems if you put it into perspective, but it sure often *feels* longer than it should be. That's all because of it being written in a specific way.

Shadowbringers got the narrative structure and pacing *almost* perfect. I'd personally at most remove bits of Ill Mheg, Rak'tika, some of the lead-up to Malikah's Well and of course a step or two from the lead up to Vauthry as mentioned above.

(The latter bit and the Labyrinthos would actually already be improved by just giving them better variation in music.)

But I think ShB and EW mostly need trimming rather than complete removal or rewrites of sections.

I really think ARR, Heavensward and Stormblood especially really need (further) cuts, though. Some of it really doesn't add anything to the world and works better as a brief joke or detour than a prolonged bit.

People will stick around if the content is good. Padding keeps people around in the worst way possible.

I hoped 16 being a "new" story compared to 14 being inherited would not have as big of an issue with it and it would get the chance to learn from 14, but now I really hope they listen in regards of the pacing and take away the right lessons from the criticism directed at the side quests in 16: less fetch quests with nobodies, more character focus with the cast we care about, incorporating world building into the story via them and really looking at pacing stopgaps, how to slow down and when to (and not to) slow down because I really think it is the biggest narrative issue these games face.

I feel like 7.0 would be the perfect place to combine all of these lessons in storytelling, being "a new beginning" and I feel like the 6.x have been doing pretty well in that sense because patches tend to have pretty wild variations in pacing (5.1 vs 5.3).

Having concise prose, knowing when to speed up and slow down in the story and keeping it all compelling and exciting all the way through in long form while also making a good game around it all really feels extremely tough if you lay it out in the most simple terms like this.

But I'm very curious what they will and won't learn from all of this.

[ffxivkitiarayhima]

The Adventures of Gigi

Hildibrand quest spoilers! This is sort of a...Live Blog? Well not really.

Basically me rambling about part TWO of the level 60 Hildibrand questline

I don’t know what’s funnier: Imagining a high pitched voice or some sort of demonic gravelly voice saying that.

You have negative braincells.

Though gotta say, I love that Gigi has learned to pose. Adorable. I love this demon Mammet/Black Mage.

Oh ew, right, I’m helping out the church guy.

Y’know what, we’re going to go with “helping”. Is Kit ACTUALLY helping? Nah. She’s just waiting for Lucia to be done with the review of the Inquisitors that got pushed to the back of the pile.

I AM PRETTY CERTAIN GIGI’S GENDER IS MURDER AND ANGST BUT THAT COULD JUST BE ME EXTRAPOLATING FROM FINAL FANTASY IX.

...Is this quest gonna be figuring out Gigi’s gender?

Is that what we’re doing today? Edmont: (shows up wondering what’s going on) Kit: Oh hey Dad. Cyr: ... Cyr: ... Cyr: ...Wha- Kit: You’re really behind on Ishgardian gossip.

NO, EDMONT JUST HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR UNLIKE YOU GO BACK TO FUCKING BLAZBLUE OR WHATEVER FIGHTING GAME YOU’RE FROM

Kit: Think of it this way, at least your parents won’t have to demand grandchildren! Edmont: (nodding solemnly) Precisely. Would reduce their woes. Cyr: This cannot be happening. Is all of Ishgard mad?

Edmont you cheeky shit.

PAPA HILDY?!

GIGI IS SAYING PAPA HILDY?!

THAT’S FUCKING ADORABLE.

Hildibrand that’s the Catholic Ishgardian Church. Hildraband, I already exposed its corruption. Hildibrand, what are you and your negative braincells about to do? I think in the moment where it was just Gigi and Cyr, Gigi should have looked at Cyr, gone, “Halone has no place for you in her halls.” Then trotted off. For uh, reasons.

I am the warrior of light and I will fucking stab you.

owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Okay Gigi running off is hitting the feels/

Bonus:

Cyr: Okay, just so we’re clear--you do agree that it’s a mammet, right? You don’t honestly believe that, you know... Kit: (straightfaced) Gigi is a child of House Manderville, or did you forget that? Cyr: (internal screaming)

[makopowerplant]

Hildibrand quests: We have many things to offer! Adventure, excitement, comedy...

Me: Hell yeah! Sign me up!

Hildibrand Quests: ...world lore like Ul'dah has a secret police force that's been keeping their war crimes from generations ago a secret, a bunch of zombies who call Hildibrand Zombiebrand, a very cute mammet...

Me: wait back up what was that about war crimes

[yellowcrumpet]

The face of fear

[keykidpilipili]

I’m gonna be disappointed if FF14 doesn’t end up shoving Hildibrand into Elpis in the next patches as an aesop of introducing a dangerous specie leading to the breakdown of an ecosystem.

[candycryptids]

So how about that new Even Further Hildibrand quest-

[hildibrand-appreciator]

me banging on Yoshi-P’s door: MORE HILDIBRAND PLEASE

[foofmastaflex]

The Hildebrand quests for Shadowbringers BETTER involve him playing with the pixies and confusing the fuck out of them.

[sevynnthdawn]

I imagine that he remembers that fall rather well, considering how tall that bridge was.