#i think HW means heavensward and not
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Everytime I see HW Link written to talk about Warriors I go "Heavensward Link? When was he in Heavensward?" Like a moron
#crab speaks#everytime#EVERYTIME#i think HW means heavensward and not#hyrule warriors#my brain is wired for ff ok?#I cannot escape it
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Oooooo you (me) wanna finish this so bad. Drafting………………..
#wip#my writing#you know how it is with. wips. you know how it is with adhd#ffxiv#I THINK IT WOULD BE NICE TO FINISH but im drawing blanks every time I start to work on it again#so. sharing is caring#I started writing this IN HEAVENSWARD right after hw so you Knowwww it’s been a long time#heavensward#also this idea and the hand scar idea run… parallel…? I wouldn’t have them both happen in the same timeline but… I mean maybe
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YSAYLE WAS ROBBED BUT I KNOW BETTER. YSAYLE YOU WERE THE BEST THING FROM HEAVENSWARD
#chefants death was good im just a baby but i genuinely dont think ysayle shouldve died there in heavensward for the fact alone that#they didnt DO ANYTHING WITH IT#at least chefants had meaning even if it makes me sick ysayle just feels like wasted potential to keep her a hw specific character#especially because it feels like hw was the last time they ever nuked an lore important character#cause never forget they got 3 shots in with chefant ysayle and papalymo and then NEVER AGAIN#so i think chefant sucks to be dead but i respect it. ysayle was just a wasted death#and papalymos was amazing but also sort of wasted later on with that foul zenos writing#and i think they realized that and then never did it again
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Then v Now
Tagged by @sailor-artemis @gatheredfates and @disaster-husbun Thank you friends~! ♥
I will tag uhhhhh..... @golmorehotgirl @lilas @this-is-ris @e-nishka-aosh and @stalwart-spirit
^ 12/2020 (apparently?) || 12/2024 v
So uhhhhh... storytime I guess.
A long time ago (I think this would've been when StB or maybe even HW was current) I bought a prebuilt "gaming" PC (mistake). To test it's capabilities I decided I would run the benchmark for whatever expansion was current at that time (don't ask me why this was my first train of thought, I don't claim to know the inner workings of my own mind)... it failed. Like miserably. Like if the bench could audibly laugh at me I think it would've. No matter, I hate MMOs and didn't plan to play it anyway, I just wanted to test it. I went on my merry way with my shitass "gaming" PC (that didn't last long anyway because it really was just a glorified paperweight).
Several years (and a new custom built PC) later, I was scrolling tumblr, as you do, and I kept seeing this red haired catboy and I was like "I don't know who this catboy is, but I wish only the best for him" then I found out that he was from XIV and that XIV had a "Free trial up to level 60 including the award winning expansion, Heavensward", so I was like, "Eh, I should try out the benchmark again see if I can run it. Also I enjoy a good character creator so I'll make a character give it a go and probably stop once I finish all the free content." Oh..... oh you sweet summer child... Anyway because I was not seriously considering playing this game for the long run, I was like "heehee I make an old catman because old man protag is unusual for SE game so is a bit sillay." I ran him all the way through ARR with people calling him "lad" and "boy" before I decided I couldn't stand it anymore and I spent my free fantasia to shoot him with the lazerbeam of youth. Woe, youth be upon ye catboy.
Now, did I need a friend to pretty much hold my hand all through ARR and HW because I was literally shaking with anxiety every time I queued for literally any content in the game? ...................I mean, yeah (thank you for being patient with me Lambs, as I made you run a bby sprout through probably mind-numbingly boring content for you at the time). But look at me now! I can queue as a DPS without crying the whole time I'm sitting in queue! Progress babeeeeeeeee!
It wasn't until this year (or late last year, I forget) that I actually got up the courage to start posting more stuff about my catboy (and my ship... especially my ship I still get sort of self-conscious about posting ship stuff but I enjoy it so I keep doing it anyway) and through doing so I've met soooooooo many wonderful friends in the community! I love seeing and learning about other people's WoLs, OCs, and ships, so I have been thriving getting to know everyone!
It has been an honor getting to share fandom space with so many fantastic people! I hope in 2025 I get to know even more about everyone's characters, and maybe even meet new people!
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hi! random question for you because i stumbled upon your blog and have a lot of ffxiv character stuff in my head. what do you think about a WoL who is half dragon - do you think this could work? i'm not fully through the story so not sure on all the lore. but i was thinking of making an OC who is half dragon as an AuRa, who ik are NOT half dragon but what if the WoL was an actual half dragon? thanks for any input! have a nice day!
OK, this is one of those "here is the official lore, do with it, or not, what you will" answers. Cuz it's sorta kinda possible, in a way, just not how many other fantasy settings would do it.
Now, you say you're not all the way through story, but I don't know how far that means. So I may be vague about some things and spoil some others. Lore first, and then some options to play with it...
Number 1: FF14 dragons are aliens. It seems hinted at in some ways, but we do learn that for certain in an optional raid quest in Stormblood. They are extraterrestrial, do not originate on the same planet. Hence the strangeness and strength of their abilities, especially among Midgardsormr and his First Brood, from whom all other True Dragons descend.
Number 2: Dragons reproduce asexually. Their mating is more a meeting of the mind and heart (which is why dedicated sibling pairs, like Tiamat and Bahamut, are not a problem). Their development is highly mutable, and dependent on personality and environment. Which is why there are so many kinds of dragons, and why this form of procreation isn't a problem for them.
(They also don't really care about gender, we find out in later game; they use pronouns and gendered language, but it's more like they pick it out of a hat and also I think it's in part how mortals parse their draconic language and identification of each other.)
In the ARR patches, the Ishgardian church's story about the ancient Saint Shiva is "she lay with dragons" and...sorta? Again, not necessarily sex as we primates manage it, but there was a romantic relationship that's one of the central elements of Heavensward's story.
Number 3: Dragons do not turn into people. Not natural born True Dragons, anyway. There is one who uses a simulacrum/homunculus that he controls in order to walk among people, but it's an artificial puppet body created via certain methods.
Heretics can sometimes turn into dragons--sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently (not always their intent). They manage this by drinking dragons' blood (willingly given or not, depending on situation). There's also some plot points in HW where we learn some people in the past partook of a dragon's internal source of power and now it's spread through uncountable descendants--the reason for Dragoon abilities and heretics able to tap into that and become draconic.
Certain characters in certain questlines have noticeable powerful aetheric abilities and dragons can sense the connection--because one of their parents had imbibed dragon blood. There's also a quest where a Dragoon, who by training already has an "inner dragon" awoken and tapped into, is forced to drink dragon's blood and nearly loses her sanity and self, the attempt to transform her into a mindless beast (and the source of some of the Horde's shock troops, the characters realize) an element of the story, and can she overcome it.
(these side quests were part of my inspiration for Aeryn's unexpected backstory "Bearing Sins of the Past")
Number 4: There are dragon legends in the East, but only some have to do with True Dragons descended from the First Brood. We eventually learn Seiryu of the Four Lords is not a dragon, though often is mistaken for or described as one.
There are also throughout the world large flying lizards, dinosaurs, and other big reptilian creatures native to Hydaelyn, but not related to the First Brood. They're usually common animals with no intellect.
(This is because world lore writer Banri Oda just loves dinosaurs)
SO! All that said, what's this mean for making a half-dragon OC? Well, there's options!
To be lore compliant, someone of Coerthan descent and involved with, or from a family involved with, heresy (per the Ishgardian definition) can have draconic features, maybe try to pass themselves off as Au Ra, and/or have the ability to transform, either with a catalyst (blood, alchemy, a spell tapping into their inner dragon/draconic heritage, whatever) or because it's become an inherent part of them. Think draconic-blooded sorcerers from Dungeons & Dragons. They get their inherent magic due to draconic ancestry/influence somewhere in their lineage.
There's also always the mistaken/lying element; maybe the character thinks they are, or something has to do between their family and legends of the auspices and Four Lords. One of the things about FF14's lore is a lot of it is given in world and in characters; some of it is known to be wrong or misrepresented or incomplete etc., to give the devs wiggle room--as well as us as players.
One can partially ignore canon and say yeah, a humanoid parent boffed a draconic parent, in whatever form, and now this unlikely one in a million chance (or not, if we're already throwing away some lore) offspring is around and grown into an adventurer.
I've also seen folks portal in their OC from another fantasy setting where such things are more plausible, such as D&D (Baldur's Gate 3 is the current new hotness) or Warcraft (where it's honestly more assumed, as I can't recall an actual canon half-dragon but that's always a popular RP concept).
So while on the surface, some may say "no, that's not canon because--" there are ways to make it work within lore, if not how one usually thinks of "half-dragon" or "dragon-blooded" (tho kinda in the D&D sorcerer sense, IMO).
Or you throw out canon, and tell folks "I know the lore is X, but for my character's story I'm headcanoning Y instead." And then block any fussy attempts at lore policing.
Or just use the power of crossovers and portal stories/isekai to make it work, and again tell lore police to screw off.
Hope this helps, and happy OC writing!
#final fantasy xiv#dragons#lore#characters#roleplay#writing#dragon blooded#half dragon#lore compliant
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Demolishing a dungeon really is the funnest thing ever.
Especially doing some of the earlier dungeons in like 10-15ish minutes (or even below).
Doing big pulls whenever they're in a dungeon is also really fun.
Unfortunately, this has caused me to feel frustrated every time I get a single-pack pulling tank when I'm on melee or healer in a roulette.
I get it, especially with sprouts! But it's so much more fun to keep the pace up to me.
I wish the game had rewards for speedrunning. I feel that's a niche that could be utilized more since the roots for it exist with the bonus for clearing a dungeon quickly.
The issue with that bonus is that it's super lenient, so it doesn't really mean anything. But I think there is a lot of potential in expanding that idea.
Perhaps a mount or special armor set when you've cleared enough dungeons really quickly or maybe even something dungeon-specific?
I've been working on the Heavensward relic for a bit now and the first step of the relic, which involves rerunning all of the dungeons of HW, is what first got me thinking about this.
What if you tied the relic to "challenge modes" of a dungeon?
Something like a speedrun or a no hit run or even a solo challenge?
Or a challenge where you have certain abilities disabled?
I feel that would make rerunning dungeons more interesting in general.
This idea might have its problems (maybe in particular extra development time, how it would work within the multiplayer framework of the game in general or even how players would treat each other in this kind of content, the last part in particular I feel could be dealt with just like any other rule-breaking, but how content is designed does also matter to player behavior), but I think it would be a source of variety to the same old roulettes.
Just the platformer fan in me coming out and wanting something like the challenge runs you can do in platforming games in FF14.
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💖🤔🦄 for the New Year's writing asks? <3
💖 What is your primary writing goal for this year?
I want to get the Heavensward era fic completed and posted by the end of 2025. I think I'm somewhere between a half and a third of the way done with it at current standing, and with holiday crunch over and done with I'm hoping to have energy to work on it again.
🤔 Are there any new characters you want to write about?
Eventually I'm going to have to start writing the Scions as they pop up in HW but I'm looking forward to writing more with Thancred. I've written a couple things with him now but they're very disparate and very different versions of him (HW vs pre-ShB). Eventually something cohesive will fall out, right?
🦄 Is there a new POV you'd like to try writing?
Idk if this means character POV or writing POV but Urianger is going to be a fun one to tackle.
Thanks for the asks @myreia
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for the wol think thonkers, 4, 8, 11, 18, 24, 27! i know its been a minute so i can link you the post again if you need it lol
4. What do they do in their down time? Do they have any hobbies outside of Primal-slaying and world-saving? Are these lifelong hobbies or recent interests?
The main thing is that Solara's a tinkerer! Before he came to Eorzea, he was working under (and eventually became) a Goldsmith in Kugane. It’s something he picked up when he was in his teens after seeing these items at Reunion from a foreign merchant that no one was interested in buying. So some of his downtime in ARR was spent with the Goldsmith's guild. Some of it translated well to machinery which he also found himself drawn to, especially after his time with the Skysteel Manufactory. A lot of his ARR and HW and early StB post patch was spent learning from and working with the Ironworks and Skysteel Manufactory. Which contributes to why those groups know him better than the Scions for most of the story. When shit really hits the fan and he doesn’t have the time to work with either the Ironworks or the Manufactory, he puts that creative energy towards his own weapons. Making and repairing stuff is how he eventually connects with the rest of the Crystarium. So some of the Crystalline Mean quests are canon since he does that during his recovery period in post ShB. And I imagine that he becomes a bit of an omnicrafter (sans Alchemist and Culinarian) over the game's timeline. I haven’t decided how post EW looks for him in terms of hobbies though. And I gotta think about some other smaller scale hobbies he might have lol.
8. What is one of their biggest regrets? Has it had an effect on how they act moving forward, for better or worse?
Choosing just one of his biggest regrets is hard so here’s some back to back lol. There’s several that are kind of in the same ballpark. His behavior to the Scions during Shadowbringers are pretty up there (and more so the latter). And he works towards making amends throughout Shadowbringers post patch and Endwalker. Not quite as high of a regret are his interactions with Hien. He doesn’t regret interfering with Hien’s plans in Stormblood in the slightest, but he does know he took it a lot further than he reasonably should have, which is what he feels bad about specifically. And those two have a bumpier road to reconciliation. I've yet to explore how or if Solara's Myste would manifest (if they do) regarding his guilt over the people he could not save and the people whose lives he unintentionally negatively affected. And among his regrets competing for the top spot are Haurchefant and Ysayle's deaths. He didn't get to know some of the others (e.g. Minfilia, Papalymo, and Moenbryda) to have massive regrets over them, but Haurchefant and Ysayle were some of his closest friends during that point in time. And because Solara only becomes a tank after Heavensward, I think it would make sense if he picked up tanking specifically because of Haurchefant and Ysayle (both of whom are tanks) dying. But these events (and honestly Ishgard as a whole) feeds into his general distrust of city state leaders when he knows they’re hiding things, which affects his perception of and behavior towards Hien and the Exarch later down the line. And I want to say that especially after Ysayle dies is when Solara becomes a lot more hesitant to connect with new people in his life, at least until ShB post patch.
11. Despite everything, is it still you? Has the core of who they are as a person remained true through everything, or have they been changed by what they've experienced and learned, for better or worse?
No. Solara has pretty solidly changed on two major facets (and Shadowbringers was his "get torn down and rebuilt from the rubble" arc). The first is that events of the story wore away the ambition that he had before he came to Eorzea. And the way his initial dream of “I want to Khan and Khagan” became such a shitfest that he’s very averse to both ideas now. I need to figure out how long Solara is Khagan because the Naadam is a yearly event. While he doesn't want to, for the sake of being involved in the politics of the region, he might continue to participate until some time in Endwalker/Endwalker post patch where he decides to stop being involved in the Naadam (because I HC that each expansion is roughly one year). And even after EW, I think Solara is a bit aimless now that there isn’t a giant existential crisis. He’s picked up the pieces of his interpersonal life and has made a lot of repairs, but hasn’t really figured out what he wants for himself. The other is that Solara becomes a lot more selfless and heroic as a result of everything. This is a “The mask becomes him” situation where there was a lot of heroism that Solara did early on that grated against him because he thought that’s what he should do in his position (and what he thought his brother would do) and not necessarily what he wanted to do. But it slowly does just become the way he naturally thinks and sees things. Like I imagine early Solara to have thought processes similar to ARR Alphi, he just didn’t act on them because he’s just more aware of how to handle people and that behavior doesn’t suit the WoL image he was trying to craft. And I also have to give a lot of credit to the twins for inspiring him in this regard, especially Alphinaud because Solara sees so much of himself in Alphinaud that there’s a level of “Alphinaud grew and learned and succeeded in a way Solara wished he did”. And that’s not a tone of envy, but of deep admiration and beaming pride.
18. How do they feel about the work they do? As the Warrior of Light they're tasked with quite a lot of violence, is it something that comes naturally to them or do they resist it? Are they merciless, do they try to spare as many lives as they can, or do they fall somewhere in between?
The first part of this question is already loaded, damn LOL. But I don't think Solara likes being the WoL. He'd really rather it wasn't him, but this is what the situation is and he has to deal with it. He likes helping people, or perhaps more accurately he's grown to liking it. He likes that he's making a difference. But he wishes at the end of the day, it didn't end up all falling to him.
As for the questions regarding violence, I honestly think Solara's indifferent to it. To a large extent, violence has always been a part of Solara's life or at least hanging over him as a specter. From his mother taking him to flee the Garlean occupation of Doma, to growing up on the Steppes and losing his adoptive brother during a Naadam, to even the fact that his heritage from Doma is that of being bodyguards to the royal family. He just takes it as a fact of life and in a fucked up way, it comes naturally to him when he’s in a situation that calls for it. He isn't going out of his way to take lives, but he isn't making an effort to spare people (unless told to). Not including extreme cases like Zenos, (so mostly talking about foot soldiers on the opposite side of the battlefield here) it makes little difference to him if he takes someone out by killing them or knocking them out. With some exceptions I can think of being parts of StB (e.g. anything on the Steppes and also he might be more careful to not kill soldiers that might be conscripted from the nations he's trying to help free) and fighting tempered after they find a cure.
24. How do they feel about Hydaelyn? What was their perception of the Mothercrystal in the beginning, and how did that change by the end, if at all?
I haven't put too much thought into Solara's belief system to be honest, or if he's even a religious person. I don't know if it makes sense for him to pay any mind to Hydaelyn until the initial calls though. And the initial calls from Hydaelyn and awakening the Echo were pretty distressing to him. And he's always had a buried fear that he might actually be tempered somehow due to Ifrit's comment back in ARR and the uncertain nature of the Echo. This fear only gets exacerbated during ShB. And also after shit hits the fan during late ARR post patch with Moenbryda dying because he doesn't have the Blessing of Light at that moment and then Minfilia disappears and becomes the Word of the Mother, Solara has a largely negative opinion of Hydaelyn for most of the story. And then Hydaelyn remains silent, which doesn’t help the situation. But contextualizing this over what he learns in Endwalker and thinking about Hydaelyn in the context of Venat makes everything click for him. He likes, trusts, and understands Venat. He retains complicated feelings over everything, but he doesn't have an explicitly negative opinion anymore. Because Venat the Ancient who chose what she thought was the best possible action in a slew of only terrible choices is a lot more easy to accept and forgive than Hydaelyn the faceless, unacting, Mothercrystal who intervened once to keep her weapon alive but not any of his allies. Hydaelyn made Solara feel like a tool and a puppet and Venat made him feel like a friend and accomplice, which made all the difference.
27. How well known are they? Does everyone know their name as the Warrior of Light, or have they managed to maintain some level of anonymity? Do they prefer it that way, and do they have any struggles resulting from it? (Getting stopped on street corners VS awkwardly avoiding questions.)
Solara being a max height Au Ra is just going to get noticed lol. Especially since there aren't many of them outside of the Eastern regions, which are the regions he's most often in anyways lol. I don't think he can go anywhere after Stormblood, and especially after Endwalker, without being noticed. So it's probably an “everyone knows his name” situation, especially in the East because he was a political figure there for some time. He does wish he retained some anonymity but people generally leave him be. His resting bitch face is canon and deters a good number of people off. And also his (self) destructive behavior during Stormblood post patch was pretty public and also scared many people off. It's one of those situations where the people that do talk and interact with him (which are often children) say he's nice and friendly (late Stormblood post patch excluded) and everyone else is like ??????
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re: my previous hw-era estinien griping, I really honestly do think that one of his bigger issues is the fact that halfway through the expac he loses his main character motivation, and it's another facet of my 'the aery is the worst dungeon from a plot perspective' propaganda.
like halfway through heavensward you kill nidhogg. like you kill his body for real. the fact that nidhogg (if not the wyrms / dravanians in general) are able to cling onto life even without their bodies is at least subtly hinted with midgardsormr, but it's very much framed (as a bait-and-switch or not) like 'alright this is dealt with'. estinien's only motivation in hw is killing nidhogg so his arc crashes to a halt and trips over itself as the story has to find reasons for him to still be here, and unfortunately bc he's so flatly written he basically has none. his lack of reaction to the dsw revelations means he kind of just...hangs around until it's time for his plot-mandated possession scene.
maybe it would've been better had nidhogg lived; have estinien take the eye he borrowed from hraesvelgr, but nidhogg reclaims his original, takes the horde, and flies off. now you can't keep hraesvelgr's eye without pissing him off and having two of the first brood potentially descend on ishgard, you have no fucking clue where nidhogg went and now ishgard is in direct danger, and estinien is left having both failed and lost the one thing he needed to kill the wyrm.
everything else could still play out the same; nidhogg reclaims his other eye at azys lla, estinien - either still shaken by his previous failure, enraged by nidhogg's reappearance and desperate to finish the job this time, or both - has a real moment of weakness and fails to keep nidhogg from overtaking him, and nidhogg like normal reclaims his second eye.
I don't think this is his only issue - estinien's hw writing requires a lot of tlc to get him to be an actually active character - but I do think it's a major symptom.
#spoilers#major spoilers#have I mentioned that I hate the aery storywise yet /jokes#I mean there's still the direct issue of 'esti.nien has No Reaction to his entire sense of self being upended#and instantly decides despite everything he needs to Right This Instant go murder a bunch of dragons he now knows are real people#in their homes like a monster' but if we want to stay within canon.#estinienposting#ishgardposting#saint.txt
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I was thinking about Ryce’s job as a Scion and his relationship with the rest of the Scions so here’s some headcanons of how he feels toward everyone in order of importance to him:
1. Alphinaud - He’s closest with Alphinaud and has been so since the beginning of their trip to Ishgard after being framed for the Sultana’s murder. He treats Alphinaud as he would a little brother, and would lay his life down for him without a second thought.
2. Alisaie - Like Alphinaud, Ryce sees Alisaie as a little sister. The twins are close in age to what his own blood sister would have been, which serves to make him even more protective of them in times of danger. Though he worries about Alisaie less than Alphinaud because he knows Alisaie is a whirlwind in battle and can hold her own.
3. Thancred (post HW) - Before Heavensward, Ryce was a little tense with Thancred, mostly because he had flirted with Minfilia a few too many times and Thancred didn’t like that. Since her death, though, especially after the events of Shadowbringers, they’ve formed a close friendship. Ryce is a source of comfort, knowing all too well how it feels to lose a loved one.
4. Yshtola - She has always been an enigma to Ryce. Her more serious nature shouldn’t match his more laid back personality, and yet they still maintain a strong friendship. Yshtola is one of the few people in his life that Ryce legitimately fears, second only to Tataru.
5. Lyse - While she’s no longer officially a Scion, Ryce remained at her side during the events of Stormblood. He respects her greatly, though agrees little with her means of leadership and resents her for agreeing to using the Steppe Au’Ra to their own ends, in order to gain an upper hand in a war that his people had no interest in fighting. (Canonically, they were close to becoming romantically involved until this point.)
6. Estinien - While he and Ryce didn’t really get along early on (mostly due to the fact that Ryce was a bit jealous of how much Alphinaud looked up to Estinien), they’ve come to respect one another for their strengths. Their friendship is born on the battlefield, and Ryce appreciates that Estinien has been a positive figure in Alphinaud’s life.
7. Urianger - Ryce has a difficult time trusting Urianger after being so deceitful in the beginning. He still respects the man, for doing what he felt was right, but he doesn’t trust him, and will always assume that he would rather keep secrets than confide in his friends and allies. This sentiment holds true even into Endwalker.
8. G’raha - Ryce doesn’t dislike G’raha, however he doesn’t know G’raha as well as the others. Ryce is not canonically present during the crystal tower quests, and therefore doesn’t have as strong a bond with G’raha. This bond is growing, however, now that he’s more actively part of the group.
9. Krile - Like G’raha, Ryce doesn’t spend enough time with Krile to really have an opinion of her. He respects her, and believes she’s very smart. He has no idea what the ears on her hood are for but he thinks they’re charming. Respects her from a distance.
10. Tataru - Ryce doesn’t dislike Tataru. In fact, he adores her. However, she frightens him to no end and fully believes that she’s the only one in the group that could have him killed on a whim and get away with it from her cunning alone.
#;Headcanons (Ryce)#Lyse was almost perfect as a romance headcanon for him#and then the Steppe arc of Stormblood happened and Ryce lost his respect for her lol
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A (Less) Brief Retrospective on the 3.0 MSQ, Since I Just Finished Replaying it
Heavensward is, of course, the critically-acclaimed expansion pack that arguably kickstarted FF14’s reputation for having one of the best stories in videogames. As with my other retrospectives, this is a (increasingly not-so) brief review of the 3.0 MSQ, now that I’ve finished its NG+.
3.0 MSQ greatly improves on what came before in terms of character and plot structure. The most obvious improvement is in characters, and a large part of the reason why the 3.0 MSQ is so strong is because it scales back the scope of the story drastically. Where ARR was arguably the story of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and the Eorzean Alliance, 3.0 is the story of Ishgard, Alphinaud, Ysayle, and Estinien (with a bit about the WoL). The story’s laser focus on these four elements means it has much more room to develop them; thus, 3.0 delves deeply into their motivations and feelings, and lets them drive most of the events of the story.
The end result is a story that evokes much more pathos in the audience. We are not outsider Scions trying to solve the somewhat more abstracted problem of Primals and Garleans on behalf of city-state leaders. Instead, we see, through the eyes of our Warrior Light, the journey of a boy who moves past his shattered self-esteem and guilt into becoming a confident but humble young man who understands true leadership; the story of a man who suffered greatly at the hands of Nidhogg and allowed his hatred to define him, with tragic results; the tale a woman who fervently believed that she was justice given form, only to find out that she had killed so many people for ultimately nothing; and the chronicle of a people that knew nothing but war for almost all of its existence, built on a foundation of lies, sin, and disgusting betrayal.
It’s true that 3.0 is darker than what came before, but I don’t think the darkness by itself is what makes 3.0 so good and critically acclaimed. Rather, the darker tone allows the writers to more deeply explore emotions that the less personal story of ARR could not. When we see Ysayle weep when she realizes that her crusade against Ishgard was based on her ignorance of how Primal summoning actually works, the gravity of her mistakes–having cost the lives of so many people–makes the weight of those lies even greater, and thus our hearts go out to her. When we see that the Heretic problem keeps happening because Ishgard oppresses its poor through constant conscription, it casts an uncertainty on the issue and prevents us from finding an easy solution. When we learn that Ishgard’s suffering is in part self-inflicted, caused by the insatiable greed of its King and his knights culminating in the cruel betrayal of a friend for power, we too are deeply disgusted, and many of us briefly wonder if Nidhogg has a point.
While 3.0’s story is ultimately an epic narrative in the tradition of most Final Fantasy stories, its decision to frame it as the personal journey of Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle making their way through 1,000 years of of politics, institutions, and hatred makes FF14 stand out as one of the best story RPGs in history.
If there’s one minor criticism I have about the characters in 3.0, it’s Cid. He’s fairly heavily involved in the plot of 3.0 towards the latter half of the story, but he mostly serves to get certain plot obstacles out of the way (the Azys Lla barrier, Bismarck, interfacing with Azys Lla Allagan technology). He has no real personal stake in the Dragonsong War outside not wanting the remaining Scions getting hurt, since his personal conflict is primarily centered on his relationship with Garlemald, so he’s mostly just kind of there in HW. I think the writers understood this to an extent as well, since Cid tends to stay out of the spotlight for most of the MSQ from here onwards. Cid’s certainly not boring when he’s on the screen, but he doesn’t bring the depth of emotion to the story that Alphinaud, Ysayle, and Estinien do.
Y’shtola has a similar issue: she wakes up so late into the plot that she doesn’t have as much of a personal connection to the conflicts driving it, but again, Y’shtola is by no means boring. She helps introduce a very fun character (Matoya), she gives us insight into one of the major regions of the expansion (Idyllshire), and she changes up the party dynamics once Ysayle takes a hiatus in the story..
Others have lamented that we don’t get to know much about the Heaven’s Ward knights, but I think that’s fine. It’s clear that their role in the story is to serve as largely faceless muscle for the Archbishop and as a reflection of Ishguard’s worst vices (sadistic hatred of heresy, oafish bullying by the aristocracy, blind faith in Ishgard’s orthodoxy, etc), and we didn’t need to delve deeply into their personalities for that to work.
As for the structure of the 3.0 plot, it’s excellent. I’ve been writing a plot summary for all of the MSQ as I’ve been replaying them, and it really stands out to me that 2.0 and 2.X, combined, took me about 1500 words to summarize, while 3.0 by itself took 2500 words; yet, 3.0 FELT much shorter than either 2.0 or 2.X. This is because the 3.0 MSQ is tremendously well paced. It doesn’t stop the personal journeys of characters to set things up as much as 2.0, and the plot moves faster and is focused more narrowly on character conflicts than on abstract political disputes. Very few parts feel like pointless slog, and there aren’t nearly as many quests where you are forced to go across several maps, talk to one faceless NPC for one line of dialogue, and come back to the quest giver to complete the quest. The vast majority of 3.0 feels like it goes at a good clip–not so fast that scenes are unable to emotionally develop, and not so slow that the sense of narrative tension is lost.
There are two areas that the plot does flag a little. First are the parts where the 3.0 MSQ forces us back to Ul’dah to deal with Nanamo and Raubahn. Since 3.0 presents itself as the Ishgard story, it does feel a little jarring to go be wrenched away and sent back to Ul’dah to set things up for Stormblood. I suspect that the writers didn’t have much choice here–3.1 through 3.3 have to deal with the aftermath of 3.0, while 3.4 and 3.5 have to set up Shinryu, the venture into Ala Mhigo, and Doma, with each individual patch story having very limited time available to them. As a result, there probably wasn’t any easy place to stick the Nanamo-and-Raubahn rescue arc.
Second is how the story rides an adrenaline rush between the Vault and the defeat of Bismarck, but then blueballs us with the Azys Lla barrier. The story’s pace moves very quickly once we confront the Archbishop atop of the Vault, and it almost feels like we should be hot on the Archbishop’s heels the whole time as soon as he steals the key to Azys Lla away from us. Instead, Cid’s Enterprise is unable to give chase after it’s stopped hard by the Azys Lla barrier, and we are forced to take a long detour back to Ul’dah, then to Gridania to fetch Y’shtola, then tp Idyllshire, then back to Azys Lla, which really takes away from the momentum that the story had built up after the Vault. I think if they had cooled the pace of the story a little somewhere between the Vault and Bismarck’s defeat, our Idyllshire detour wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable.
Still, these issues were the only ones I could reasonably come up with for the characterization and plot structure of 3.0. When I first started replaying 3.0 on NG+, I’d wondered how well it would hold up after the amazing stories that were Shadowbringers and Endwalker: I’m glad to report that the critically acclaimed 3.0 MSQ still more than holds its own, delivering a truly amazing story with deep, emotionally-compelling characters and a well-structured plot that smoothly carries us from one riveting scene to the next.
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9, 15, 21 + o’ravi for the pre-DT questions? 💚
ty dani!! i'm gonna answer these out of order because the answer for 9, what's in wol's bag, got really fucking long 😂 (there is a gpose in there 👀 and a lot of Ravi lore)
15. what would your wol be if they weren't the wol? what would they do as a job or career? would they be happier?
O'ravi would've just kept doing the stuff she was doing pre-ARR- namely, traveling the realm as a minstrel, and supplementing that with her skills as a huntress if she didn't make enough gil with music. She would've been SO much happier with that, but it wouldn't have filled the hole in her chest that longed for purpose and deeper meaning. (Obviously, the pursuit of art and sharing it with others does have meaning, but she still wanted more, if that makes sense.) She would never in a million years have been a Scion- as it is, she very nearly turned tail and ran after first meeting them ldfkjghdjgh. (She felt very small and stupid around them in ARR, and she felt like an outcast among them up until the end of base ShB.)
21. what does your wol do to unwind? any hobbies? reading? sewing? croquet? sitting in a dark room in complete silence?
Laying on the floor in a dark room is how she calms down when she's overstimulated/having a panic attack FDLKGDLHGJKH
To unwind, she always goes somewhere very quiet, maybe wraps herself up in a big soft blanket if temperature allows. She'll read letters, perhaps write some letters, do some embroidery or make a tiny stuffed animal, or literally just sit there doing nothing and maybe doze off lmao. She used to refuse to do any weaving as a "fuck you" to what her tribe/family expected of her, but she takes it up again post-ENW now that she doesn't have to worry about her work being compared to her mother's masterworks. She also likes to people-watch from rooftops or balconies or wherever else people are unlikely to notice her.
As far as hobbies go, perhaps her favorite is music. She plays the lute, the harp, violin, and later, the piano. The piano and harp are the most calming for her to play.
Other hobbies are:
collecting flowers during her travels and pressing them in journals
collecting mammets (specifically, the wind-up little guys you get in-game; she has probably a dozen different wind-up O'ravis at this point, as well as minions of her friends, enemies, allies, the entire First Brood, and random others)
collecting plushies (her collection includes the stuffed Estinien and Hraesvelgr, as well as every single adorable little thing on the market!! tonberries, chocobos, baby dragons, sheep!!)
drawing her favorite locations (she is bad at it. this does not stop her)
collecting orchestrion rolls and sheet music, as well as a small collection of musical instruments which are of a dramatically nicer quality than the ones she started out with FDLKHGKJH
gardening and tending to animals
riding chocobos (she's a horse girl without the horses LOL)
Now, lore time!!
9. what's in your wol's travel bag? any trinkets? any vital items they can't go without? do they travel light and figure stuff out on the fly, or do they bring way too much with them?
Hmm....a good question....well for starters,
she NEVER goes without her purple lipstick (she has a few different shades, and the worse she's doing mentally the darker the color she uses- for the record she doesn't do that on purpose lmao)
she also has a small array of jewelry that she pretty much always keeps with her. For practicality's sake, I like to think there's enchantments on them that prevent them getting lost or broken lkjfghdkgjh. She decides which things to wear based on either aesthetics, or which memories she wants to keep closest to her today
In ARR, she was always wearing a pair of fluorite earrings, which was the first thing she bought as soon as she had the money; in Heavensward, she had a set of opal jewelry Haurchefant commissioned for her; from the HW patches on, she always wears at least one piece of Fortemps jewelry, usually the earrings + choker; after ShB, she started wearing Amaurotine and Crystarium rings; and post-ENW, she has rings from Asphodelos and also her wedding rings! 💞
She also has the Dravanian earrings of aiming, which I like to think are shards of Shiva's ice (pretend they glow lol). The Orthodox ring that I think drops from the Aery is what I use for a wedding ring in-game lol- I like to think that she bought it from some random jeweler because it reminds her of Aymeric :> She also has Zenos's ENW necklace. Probably.
As far as more practical travel items are concerned:
she buys paper and ink just about every chance she gets, so she can write letters to people back home; she also has a journal that she keeps notes in. They're extremely disorganized
obviously, she has all her job stones; from the Zenos assassination attempt in Doma onwards, she fights the same way Meteor does in the ShB trailer, switching between classes mid-battle (in rapid succession, once she gets really good at it). The gear she's not currently using gets stored in the job stones, and she switches between classes by slightly shifting her aetheric attunement to the stones so that one takes priority over the others. This is all headcanoned bullshit based on my very limited understanding of how aether works, the gear set system, and the ShB trailer LMAO
whatever the Eorzean equivalent of ibuprofen is 🥴 probably some Thavnairian potions lmao
bandages and shit for cleaning wounds. She is very particular about not letting any of her injuries, no matter how minor, get infected!!
SOAP. for being an adventurer she actually hates being covered in blood, dirt, and sand so fucking much she cannot STAND it. Begone, damned texture!!!!!!
comb. She hates it when her hair gets matted (if her hair's a mess, that's a sign that things are Very Bad)
glamor prisms :> she will not prioritize fashion over comfort, so if she really wants to wear a pretty shirt/dress/whatever but it has a bad texture or something, she'll just glam it over something more comfortable. It also means she can shake up her accessories without needing to take the time to actually switch something out
Azem's crystal is with her at all times, no exceptions. She also has some other similar crystals that she's experimenting with (with the help of Y'shtola, G'raha, Urianger, Professor Claudien, and some folks back in Elpis who don't know the full scope of her project), with three main goals: enshrining all her knowledge and memories in them so that people who don't have the Echo can see her memories as if they did; preserving her history and journeys so that future generations will have access to the facts, no matter how warped the stories get; and tying these crystals as well as Azem's to her soul so that when she dies, her reborn soul will have a means of learning their past, if they so choose. Taking a page out of Erichthonios's book for that idea lol
if she anticipates an arduous trip or incredibly difficult fight, she brings a cane. Such things take a lot out of her post-ENW and she finds herself in need of a mobility aid at times. I think she also has a variety of potions and tonics to help manage her conditions, courtesy of Nidhana, probably.
In general, she's pretty meticulous about packing things ahead of time, and ends up bringing a whole ton of shit rdlkfjghfdgj. But she just gets anxious thinking about "I probably don't need to bring this but what if x ridiculous scenario happens and I do?". Pre-ARR she just grabbed a few things and made shit up as she went.
#thanks again dani!!!!! i had so much fun writing this lore dump LOL#i am gnawing through my desk rotating her in my mind forever and ever#o'ravi soltholia#ffxiv
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Thoughts after last night now I'm recovered enough from the epic London-induced migraine to think and we're stuck half an hour late on the coach home.
Absolutely beautiful. Amanda made me sob like a baby as I relived Dragonsong's feels through her beautiful voice.
Heavensward as a whole, and Dragonsong in particular, have such heavy meaning for me. Beyond the story, which is traumatic(in the best way) and beautiful on its own.
HW dropped about six months after my relationship started and the early days were just me and him going through MSQ, wearing matching shitty hats at level 58, raiding once we got to 60. Doing all the sightseeing log while shooting the shit on teamspeak.
It's a lot.
#ffxiv#ffxiv symphony#eorzean symphony#it was an emotional rollercoaster frfr#just wish my bestie could have been there >;#cursed con flu
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Rookie here with some thoughts, #1 being oh you put it into words
For clarity, I am about 75% done (I think) with HW's story quest. I am absolutely not an authority lol.
I think the way the classes work in this game reinforces this idea?
And I'm sure some of that is carryover from 1.0 but like
First, I'm hard-pressed to think of a game that lets you switch classes as freely as FF14. If I've unlocked it, and I'm not in combat, a cutscene, or a special story instance of some kind, I can change classes. That's it. I don't have to go to a special job trainer every time, I don't have to pony up gil (or real world money), nothing. Once I have it, I have it. If I want to switch from my level 61 Black Mage to a Level 1 Fisher in the middle of Heavensward, I can. It's not a good idea, but I can.
So, armor. Classes are defined by their weapons - even grimoires start diverging later on, I've noticed as I work on both SCH and SMN - but there's a lot of armor that can be worn by "Any class", "Disciples of War" (phys attackers), "Disciples of Magic" (mages), and then later on becoming a bit more specific. But I can put on something as, say, a Warrior, and notice it has four or five other abbreviations on it - I could potentially wear it as a Dark Knight, for instance.
Aside from reinforcing the idea of connection and giving players more options, it kind of makes me curious. Heck, the reason I picked up the Conjurer and Arcanist lines on my main file (aside from role flexibility) is so I could clear low-level magic gear out of my armory chest. Sometimes, when I do a quest, a job trainer will acknowledge that I've done their class quest even when the quest I'm doing is specifically a different class. It's a small touch, but the fact that somebody put that thought into it does elevate the game. It's related to how NPCs will occasionally textually acknowledge that your character is a big deal in the world. It's just rare enough to make me go "yeah, that's me, I did that! :3" when it comes up.
Gathering and Crafting classes are naturally related, but there being more than twice as many of the latter than the former means the interrelation gets a bit more complex. Miner is crucial to all the metal classes of course, but I need Fisher to snag the coral necessary to certain Goldsmith recipes. Ingots are an ingredient in a lot of Weaver recipes, Botanists gather not only edible plants but also wood and branches, etc. And getting good at a Crafting class means potentially securing some really good gear for your main combat class well ahead of the curve without shelling out a bunch of cash in the process.
And job trainers and class NPCs will come up in other quests, even quests of completely different job line types. By the time I've reached where I am in HW, I can recognize some NPCs by name and more, because I've interacted with them on non-MSQ quest lines. Lots of little details like that make the world feel interconnected and alive.
Even when the core thrust of the story is a bit Fantasy Orthodox, the way it's written, characters' unique viewpoints and a decent understanding of how people think and talk (makes me think of Sir Terry's works tbh) can enhance even some pretty basic story beats. Even the slogs can have some constructive output, be it gil and experience or an understanding of the lore or foreshadowing for a quest made by a better writer with more resources down the line.
It's not All Gold Standard All The Time, there are still some mediocre or even bad points, but it feels like a story that someone -a lot of someones- put some real time and effort and emotion into, and it's really enjoyable to experience for the most part.
IDK if I'm describing this well, it's just a surprisingly coherent and complex game.
p.s. it's been said a hundred times but apparently always needs to be said again: you're free to think ARR is bad (If You Actually Played It) but omg don't go around presenting it like it's the be-all, end-all, undisputed, unbiased, objective truth.
I'm forever glad I played when it came out and didn't have to deal with that shit because I can't imagine what it's like to be told over and over 'the game starts bad but just keep going'.
If people hadn't absolutely loved ARR we wouldn't be here now.
#elk text#elk plays ff14#also the number of story/side story beats that involve 'don't believe govt-written history books without critical thought'#is surprisingly high.#learning BLM made me better at timing and positioning in general#(it's the abbreviation for Black Mage. like canonically.)#getting good at SCH means I understand how SCH healers work and can use that when playing other classes#playing WAR and MNK gives me a feel for how to handle those classes when healing#so on and so forth
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Since you're very knowledgeable about meta and lore for XIV, I was wondering if you've heard much about the original ideas for XIV and how it was supposed to connect to XIII and XV? I recently reran the Antitower and it seemed like they were really setting up a dark storyline for Hydaelyn and Minfilia that potentially extends all the way to ShB. There's the art of Minfilia in crystal chains and the creepy dolls are such a random boss but might be a callout to the Minfilias sacrificed on the First. I know XV was originally going to have an evil god pretending to be good with a connection to a crystal, and I recall hearing something similar about XIII. The fact that Venat also uses Noctis' Armiger has been fascinating me since EW. It's all got me curious, but I'm not sure if it's something that's been discussed in interviews or by fans.
Nothing that I'm overtly aware of; different teams worked on XIII and XV, and while all FF's tend to reference one another in order to tie the series together, XIV as the MMO amusement park/love letter to the franchise as a whole tends to refer back to the other games frequently, borrowing concepts, characters, and rough plot elements. Also there's a lot of overlap in production times, hence the crossover events for XIII and XV we did have before (the latter one a couple times) upon those games' releases.
As for events in Heavensward with Minfilia, I don't think Hydaelyn was ever meant to be "evil", but She was always holding things back and giving Her specific point of view. Minfilia's chains can also simply mean the shackles of duty and binding herself to Hydaelyn the way she did, not necessarily anything malevolent on Hydaelyn's part.
It's also important to remember that the Zodiark/Hydaelyn storyline was inherited from 1.x, kinda fiddled with in the background...and then really delved into and overhauled while we players saw a "break" from the meta plot in Stormblood. Ishikawa took over as Writing Lead and adjusted course for Shadowbringers and Endwalker.
So there's some fine details from ARR and HW that don't quite fit or make sense now after ShB and EW, though the devs have gone back and massaged a few things (like in the Lahabrea solo duty post-Ultima Weapon) or did their best to explain it away. I'm currently (very slowly) replaying EW on my miqo'te alt, and the Watcher gives the very Ghostly Obi-Wan "truth from a certain point of view" talk when the Scions meet with him on the moon. And later, after meeting Venat, we also get the idea that to preserve the time loop and make sure we got to where we needed to be, She was playing chess games on what She had to say and do, and when, as Hydaelyn.
And the writers are very fond of biased/not always accurate in-world knowledge, in order to give themselves wiggle room; the new lorebook really emphasizes that.
The Watcher's relevant dialogue, with WoL's options:
The Watcher: Indeed, there was a faction opposed to Zodiark's creation. But their aim was never to unmake Him. The Watcher: They understood the continued preservation of the natural order was dependent on His very existence. Until we could identify and address the underlying cause of the Final Days, He would need remain, for His departure would set in motion those apocalyptic forces once more. The Watcher: Hydaelyn recognized this as well. And so, rather than destroy, She sundered Zodiark, Herself, and the star into lesser reflections, that She might confine Him in this place. WoL Dialogue Options & Watcher's Responses: I could have sworn She beseeched me to banish the Darkness. The Watcher: Perhaps She did. But as with all beings, intent is not always in accord with spoken word. -- Then what She told me in the aetherial sea was false…? The Watcher: That the two once dwelled as one until Zodiark grew hungry for power, upsetting the balance twixt Them...? Not quite a lie, though a rather gross embellishment. The Watcher: But knowing what you know now, you must surely realize why She might opt to obfuscate and mislead. --- The Watcher: Hydaelyn and Zodiark are both constructs of man. Approximations of perfection limited by our own imperfections.
If anyone does have more information on the meta of XIV's interactions and influences back and forth with XIII and XV, or the original plans for XIV's Zodiark/Hydaelyn story (might be a good question for Anonymoose) by all means speak up; I wasn't really as active in XIV at the time when those other games were current.
But it also bears mentioning that while there's a lot of familiar concepts, names, and imagery in XVI, which was created by the same team as XIV, like all the other games before it that is normal to make it part of the franchise, and so XVI is very much its own world and story, not reliant on XIV, nor is XIV reliant upon it.
Though I for one am looking forward to that crossover and getting my Torgal mount and minion and hopefully Cid Telamon's theme for my orchestrion.
#final fantasy xiv#final fantasy xiii#final fantasy xv#franchise#Hydaelyn#Minfilia Warde#Word of the Mother#The Watcher#Heavensward#Stormblood#Shadowbringers#Endwalker
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In my FF14 journey, I'm now at the first lvl 86 quest.
I stopped just before going back to the Crystal Tower.
The latter half of Thavnair is fantastic in terms of building tension.
In one of my previous posts I talked about how much I liked that the story still manages to have moments of danger despite the characters surviving the most ridiculous circumstances.
At this point, I do not believe in most danger the Scions are in, but because, just like the corrupting force of light, Akasha is a new system with new rules, it makes you doubt, even if it is just for a moment.
And it certainly made me doubt with Matsya and the baby because they're just commonfolk.
Qerasaf and Mehvan are just normal civilians, so I fully believe they could die as easily as they did.
Once again the story also uses the distinction between the massive strength of the Warrior of Light and the normal people of the world to great effect in that sense.
But even then, you can still not be in all places at once.
During the chain transformation cutscene, you could see the Warrior of Light being indecisive between targets and which people to save and later on with Mehvan, they were late to save her.
I really like that detail because stuff like this goes a long way in spelling out your position in the world. It's general enough characterisation where players can put their own spin on it, yet still enough to make the Warrior of Light have somewhat of an identity themselves.
And I think that's the best way to go with mute player characters.
I don't know much about Dungeons and Dragons, but to me it feels like a game master having their own idea of where to go with the story/characters, but leaving a good amount of room to do your own thing within their framework.
And I like that take a bunch.
Now, to loop back to what I was saying about tension, I fully believed Matsya and the baby were done for, so I was okay with either fate, but this is also where Endwalker's theming comes in.
Even if only really minor characters died, there was so much death in this part of the story.
Khalzahl, Nahbdeen, Qerasaf and Mehvan.
To cut to the point, this is a story about mental illness.
And what kind of message would that send if there was only despair?
What kind of message would this send to those suffering in similar ways?
You have to be really careful with messaging here. And I think both Matsya and the baby surviving was almost mandatory in that sense.
This is why certain criticisms of plot points later on in the story also ring wrong to me.
Because eventhough Thavnair's faith says there is more suffering in life than there is good on the surface (which I think some read the scene at the temple as), the true meaning behind their beliefs is to appreciate the good that does exist.
To see your life for what it is, good and bad.
And so the story lets Matsya and the baby survive.
Finally, I really like how Estinien's character arc and Heavensward is used in this section for Vrtra's character development and how Vrtra ends up a positive parallel to Sharlayan's policy of passivity in face of all-consuming doom.
Vrtra steps up when he is proven wrong about his presence being a source of chaos and more conflict. He considers the result of the Dragonsong War and Estinien's journey. And he considers Hraesvelgr's decision to help in the confrontation with Nidhogg.
And ultimately he steps up and decides to take responsibility as a leader of his people.
I've seen people complain about there not being enough love for Y'sayle compared to other beloved characters that died and that as a proof of sexism, but I feel it is just about the same, and the references to her with Licinia and her sister and now with Thavnair are super relevant and effective.
On my part, I think digging deeper made everything in this part so much better. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but here it definitely did for me.
The HW connections might be my favourite because it's another exanple of making previous story have more relevance, weight and substance, but I adore the message of appreciating the good, however little, within the bad a bunch, too.
You might notice I actually didn't talk much about Bestways Burrow and the section of the Loporrits and that is precisely because the entire section wasn't as substantial to me. I had some good chuckles in there and I like the Urianger focus, but even if it has the same thematic point of overcoming passivity in the face of great danger, it was a bunch less nuanced and without much else going on aside from thay point.
Much of it was magic babble, which needed to happen to make everything come together and downtime to let big reveals set in.
And we've definitely come so far from you just having to do 8 generic fetch quests to go on to another zone with more of the same by at least getting specific characterisation and learning how this huge point of focus (the moon) functions within lore, but the technical stuff isn't as interesting by nature to me.
All of this said, Endwalker still continues to be fantastic. I just went on about how Bestways Burrow wasn't as good as everything else, but it is still contributing towards solving long-standing plot threads and it is put where it is with purpose.
Finishing Thavnair also unlocked the role quests, which I think I actually only have seen in bits and pieces, so those will be fun to do for myself.
And I'm looking forward to what comes next in general, of course.
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