#i have brainworms over msq too

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

brainworms

fuck it, I shall be unhinged

SPOILERS BENEATH THE READMORE

but first

EVERYTHING CERTAINLY WAS NOT FINE AT ALL

Okay so ever since last August this bit of dialogue has been living rent free in the back of my head

That 'infect' line is pretty interesting considering we get a somewhat similar line in patch 6.4, when Jullus speaks to Zero on the nature of trust among mortals. Thancred also had a similar line, telling Zero to stick around the Warrior of Light and she'd learn the meaning of trust.

It also speaks (at least in my opinion) the sheer level of damage Athena's betrayal and his self-sundering inflicted on Lahabrea. This man got wrecked. He was in love, possibly high on fatherhood, is on the Convocation, enjoys a great deal of respect from his peers--and he is hurt so badly that he limits himself to feeling any and all emotions at a reserve. He prizes logic and cold hard facts. Talk about a fucking crash to the bottom!

And even with his self sundering, he still feels deeply! Call him out over his shutting out of Erichthonios and the man just stares at you like you fucking slapped him straight into the abyss. And when he rejoins himself--he's still that cold, hard, logical asshole of a man--still repressing his feelings.

Anyway. Brainworms. I'm playing with the idea (still gotta let patch things settle, get some proper sleep and the like), but fiddling with the idea that Lahabrea--or rather, Hephaistos was at odds with Junia, because like him, Junia was wildly passionate and worked more according to her feelings rather than accept and follow logical outcomes. Though when they did get along on matters it was actually frightening for all involved.

I'm disappointed that we didn't get any time with *our* Lahabrea--this version of him is post Panda and self-rejoined and *right* before the Final Days, but as I've got the feeling that Pandaemonium is a good-bye to the Ancients on a whole in terms of story (could be wrong but as of rn there seems to be no need for the WoL to go back to Elpis), this version of him is probably the best good-bye we'll be able to get. And honestly it might be better this way. Lahabrea was so unhinged at the end of it all that just sleeping in the Lifestream is probably the best medicine, if he hasn't moved onto being reborn yet.

Regarding anything with Riven--I'm now on the fence regarding the idea of Junia finding out about her future...soul-child, so to speak. I have two trains of thought--one where she did find out about Riven and the Final Days, and her assistance in securing Pandaemonium. Junia decides to protect Riven as best as she could by giving out that Riven was a familiar she created, giving her freedom to wander the world. She then gives Themis a cryptic clue regarding Pandaemonium and Riven's arrival, and finally, to make sure that she doesn't foul anything up, uses Kairos to wipe her memories and implant false ones.

The other line of thought was Venat. It's in line with Elidibus's explanation in Panda 2.0. Venat tells Junia that she encountered a strange being in her travels--one that reminded her greatly of her student. Junia is suspicious initially, even more so when she starts to get details of Riven's time in Elpis. Venat then 'admits' to her successor that she suspected the strange being was possibly a concept that had escaped and evolved on its own--and had decided to model itself after Junia and her actions. Junia accepts this--much to her brother Lucis' displeasure.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Either way, following Pandaemonium's stabilization, Lahabrea--who has been unable to cast out the memory of a gremlin that looked and sounded too much like a certain illogical and annoying co-worker--

(not to mention her combat skill eclipsed the most powerful of the Convocation)

Confronts Junia over Riven. Junia being Junia, effectively blocks and prevaricates on the matter. Surprisingly Lahabrea lets it drop. Yes he'd like to get his hands on the little gremlin for Science™️ but really, he did warn her away from Pandaemonium so alas.

Later on before the Final Days, he is privy to a comment Junia makes-- voicing her wish for a strong and caring daughter who could 'help the world'. This makes him stop and pause--was the little fiend Azem's daughter?

And then all the Very Bad Shit happens, Lahabrea loses his fucking mind, doesn't meet Riven again until the events of ARR and HW. By that time he's so far gone he doesn't remember the events of Pandaemonium and possibly doesn't until his soul hits the Lifestream.

"SHE WAS THE FUCKING 'FAMILIAR'?!"

Riven: *sneeze*

[relentless-endurance]

Hello, I love to encourage violence, please any of the following Choose Violence ask game questions you feel up to answering: 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, and 25!

'Isn't that basically all of them?' Yes! yes, it is. If there are any I didn't list that you wanted to answer, feel free to answer those too. I love drama, give me the chisme, peel it and feed it to me like squapes.

LIKE SQUAPES. fun fact: i have a squapes keychain on my lanyard. (alongside shoebill, Crow destiny 2 and (redacted) from Pandaemonium)

I will do xiv because. because.

answers them all because i have the day off, why not

the character everyone gets wrong

thats tough bc every character has those ppl that get them utterly wrong; I have particular beef though with the "emet was right and hydaelyn was evil" crowd because it just. it glosses over everything Emet did and acts like what Hydaelyn had to do was the worstest ever amen how dare she, when its like. Both of these characters did what they thought was necessary, but there is a gulf of difference between "I would let billions die to bring my world back" and "I sundered the star to avert a far worse disaster"

because i think people fail to realize. they were just going to keep sacrificing to Zodiark lol. (ALSO THERES ENDWALKER SPOILER STUFF as to why I will die on the hill defending my crystal mom)

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

see last ask! that was a dm a person sent me lmao. at least??? they warned me???

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

this is going to be hilarious coming from me but i'm not much a fan of most zenoswol or emetwol shippers (in spite of enjoying the former) because the discourse surrounding it all is fucking. INSANE. and there are just ways they mischaracterize both characters that drive me fucking BONKERS. So I stay in my brainworm corner with select people and I keep emet selch as a bitter ex because its honestly a lot funnier

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Amon/Fandaniel. Specifically the clown wearing Asahi's skinsuit and the guy from crystal tower. there is just. a vibe. about it. that i do not fucking like how the fans engage with it. i can't explain it concretely it just fucking bothers me.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

sorrows of werlyt is not gaius' redemption it is him suffering consequences of his actions. if its anything close to redemption atonement is probably a better word for it and also the wol still fuckin hates his guts you can see the faces in the cutscenes. he calls u a fried when at best ur coworkers for that.

also i'm a stormblood enjoyer till i fuckin die. this is not a discussion i had fun thats it that the message

9. worst part of canon

the fact that ARR didn't lean more into the fact that you were the WoL from 1.0, ARR's writing in general.

also in general there is more bits in the msq where i wish we could uh. bite back a little harder instead of just being a silent protagonist.

10. worst part of fanon

oh god. theres a lot. probably the uwu soft imperialism that people get up to with certain ships (esp bc certain characters canonically and categorically do NOT give a fuck about politics at all)

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Aside from the obvious female characters I will defend until i fucking die (Lyse, Minfilia, ETC.).... Maxima! I just think he's neat. like was actually being genuine as a Populares, and saw that shit was fucked and noped out. also here, have this screen shot where my crimes gave him thot boots:

13. worst blorboficiation

answered in last ask! theres 1 ur about to meet and 1 thats pandemonium relevant but yeah. bluuuuuhhhhh your milage may very

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Huh. I'm actually not super sure here besides things I've already bitched about. WAIT.

I fucking HATE when ppl have their wol who did not let go of heavensward trauma. like in that their wol didn't develop past it. especially if they're dark knights because. WHAT WAS THE POINT?

everyone handles grief differently ofc and its not a linear thing ever, but its so ?????????? to me that its like "my wol hasn't changed or let go or processed this at all".

what is the point if your character is never going to change or be affected? especially getting to shadowbringers??? thats all about grief and having a primo example of what NOT PROCESSING YOUR GRIEF does to you and can push you to?

like i'm not saying they shouldn't be affected at all, considering how much Haurchefant haunts you in the MSQ but like come on now. you've gotta move in some kind of direction.

(also smaller and pettier pet peeve: super 2edgy4me Azems. it feels so against what Azem was man, idk.)

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

my taste is flawless and impeccable and perfect. zenoswol may be the closest thing to an answer but like nah, its fucking funny.

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

most of early ARR before waking sands

there is a bit after the first endwalker trial that i've sort of speedran on my subsequent runs, its not BAD, but it is a little jarring tonally the first time. i mildly appreciate it in hindsight because AFTER that endwalker cuts the brakes and is a semi rolling the down the hill at top speed emotionally, but it still like. please let me move on.

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

alexander raids. mid as fuck honestly.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

oagh unfortunately i am a girlie who enjoys all the popular things in canon. The best answer is probably the Four Lords trial series. Its one of my favorites but people don't seem to talk about it much

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

I actually don't have a ship that fits this. I only like like 2 of the canon/canon ships and i've always been a fan of most of the wolships that float around

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Emet Selch. I love grandpa war crimes, he's one of my favorite characters and favorite villains ever, i have literal merch of him, but holy shit he is the reason for so much twitter discourse. which is kind of funny and on brand but also jesus christ can people please just relax and learn to mute/block people and tags aaaa

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

i don't know if this common or i just saw it a lot given my twitter algorithm but people have so. much. beef. with people who Persephone Azems. for some reason.

the reason is apparently they're most insufferable kind of straight girl shipper/emet selch fan but like aside from an occasional encounter on a wolqotd post, the two people i know/know of who actually have an Azem named Persephone are.

an mlm whose noriety comes from... being one of the biggest G'rahawol content creators/shippers

one of my lesbian friends who chose it for not shipping related reasons

and most of the time their highest crime is. an Azem named Persephone. that ships Azemet. like any genuine complaints there might be are like. not unique to this VERY NICHE SUBSET OF FANS but apparently they're sooooo common and soooo annoying.

like maybe just block and move on bc some of the complaining i see borders on being genuinely misogynistic like. its fandom pixels. RELAX.

[vermanaward]

6.4 thoughts: msq + panda

msq

felt a bit like wheel spinning tbh. a lot of back and forth building up to a whole lot of nothing reveals. 'capitalism saves the day part n: garlemald edition' was very zzz. we had this exact same plotline with the ala mhigan refugees subsisting on charity and this being bad for them because only capitalism can give your life meaning or something. brainworms, man. at least i didnt have to be polite to lolorito this time ig.

i did msq before panda only bc i was killing time before my static got their asses online and fourchy getting sulky because i'd left a nightmare in his basement made me smile.

dungeon is neat. music is nice, scenery is pretty, bosses are fast paced and have interesting mechs. gear i think is eden + deepshadow.

the 'zero ran into golbez and dude currently cosplaying golbez back in the day' reveal was obvious as soon as her first exposition came up (even if i didnt call current golbez being the blonde dude right away). personally i would have seeded that reveal earlier but that's me assuming people i write for would pay attention. i've been working for a while on the assumption that the flood of darkness was caused somehow by zodiark's shard being released (maybe that was iggy's bright idea for the rejoining, even; unleash the fragment of her god that was stuck in the shard, only for it to go extremely pete tong). i wish we'd spent more time in 13th!lamentorum. been able to explore a ruined watcher's hangout and find records of how shit went tits up here. voidsent lopporits. pls.

i did like zero's character growth though. figuring out what trust is. what a friend is. [zero voice] 'the wol is friend shaped' /sage nod

yshtola's assumption that the death of the partially rejoined zodiark would have dissipated the rest of his shards though felt like. why would you ever assume that. like when ardbert died that didnt kill the wol. ??? lady you are making no sense

as much as im glad we didnt get a full rehash of iv with golbez being mind controlled by zeromus etc it's still. kind boring that he's a souped up voidsent. golbez being teased with endcaller in the pll feels more like a bait/switch. i still want zodiark (savage) (or dog forbid zodiark (ultimate)) but unless 6.5 seriously pulls the rug out im not expecting much.

normal trial is a lot of fun. took me i think 4 or 5 pulls at like 1am? which you dont often see a normal trial which takes multiple pulls. most people were first time ofc but. the ex should be fun. much improved over rubicante but. low bar etc. music is pretty pog, its more a fantasia on ff4 themes than Yet Another Four Fiends Rearrangement. weapons are all pretty nice too.

panda tier 3

athena came in swinging a steel chair and i love herfor it. mad scientist mothwoman wife. didnt call hermione simping for her but honestly same. i enjoyed that eric told her to fuck all the way off.

athena: you're useless. >'( eric: yeah, and who literally just admitted to deliberately making me that way!!! >(

love that man. deserves much better parents than he got stuck with.

bananabread being bananabread is simultaneously the most boring and narratively satisfying option. to begin with i was like 'im not 100% you're that scenery chewing nutjob i know and meme on' but then he re-embraced his id and im just. okay nm yeah you're him, 100%

part of me is disappionted we never got to Say The Line to lid and part of me is kind a relieved they didnt go there.

the heart of sabik kinda came out of fucking nowhere, did nothing, and then fucked off. confirmed for a shard of the high seraph, i guess. when the scientist guy was holding it at my wol at the end all i could think is that it would be taking every ounce of her self control not to snatch it out of his hand and run off giggling like a gremlin. gib ultima plx.

(something something if athena/bananabread/eric/lid are them but made from memories stamped onto a soul, then... not to be a fraywol shipper on main, but....)

fights were fun. arenas are all gorgeous. p9's music is... weird but either it will grow on me or i'll just listen to something else. p10 and p12 do some cool things with the arenas. p11 manages to avoid being Seat Of Sacrifice... 2! but ig we'll see how savage shakes out. p12 i'm hype for phase 2 just bc Ultima's Perfection (Endwalker).

gear i am aggressively meh about most of the armour but the weapons are all v nice.