#im having heavensward feelings again

[vogelspinne]

Lady Iceheart ❄

[fisherrprince]

Oh hey! Welcome to stormblood :D! So, how are your overall opinions of Heavensward now that you're one the cusp of new expansion?

Hello hello! /bow

I liked it!! I liked it quite a lot I think, but I definitely think the best parts were about the dragons (the first half of base expansion with Ysayle and then 3.2-3 with Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr and Estinien) (I got sad when we left Ysayle :( ) — which, admittedly, is probably because I really love dragons. But it’s also I think structured more engagingly, I was really interested in what everyone had to say and react to. I think I stopped to talk to almost everyone anytime I could, and I really want to remember to look at item descriptions because they have TEXT in them and sometimes they’re FUNNY.. The dungeons got progressively cooler too :D

I wasn’t quite as interested in the allagans this time (or the pope I kept forgetting about him— to be honest the ishgardian half of the story was really interesting as it contributed to the whole of the story, I love how the writers are handling the complexity of human conflict and rage thus far, but I found that chasing down the pope at the end took quite a while because we also had the scions stuff in there too, which was more interesting, and I think the amount of interest just conflicted with the pacing. If I look at Heavensward without the post patch quests it has very odd pacing but with them it’s perfectly fine.) (but also the — what’sit the whale primal trial — I’ve heard is disliked but I found it really really fascinating when I did it for the first time! Maybe because it’s novel) (and also while I LOVE the hand that gives the rose, I cannot get behind unbending steel. I can’t tell if people are joking when they say it’s one of the best songs. I don’t… like it, it sounds goofy to me), but that’s also just because Azys Lla is, all offense to allag, butt ugly?? The Crystal Tower is so pretty how did you create this narsty place. Bring me back to G’raha. I also think the interjections with the Ul’dahn syndicate early on were hit or miss entirely, sometimes very satisfying and investing and sometimes I just… I don’t like the wizard lady or her wizard hat.

anyways, Hilda is my new friend, I like her. I, um, don’t think I got as attached to haurchefant as many others did, but I appreciate how well-written a good death scene is, I do. And I really felt like we got to see way more (and deeper and better-articulated) character personality and interaction than we did in arr! I liked that!!! We had little flavor text jokes everywhere! I like my friends tataru and alphinaud and although I will have to decline Aymeric’s request for a date, I would love to hang out. I will be going on a date with Vidofnir. I want to see more of where dragons actually, like, live.

also both the “final battles” were very very cool. Like immensely cool I think I legit cackled to myself a couple times (hraesvelgr’s eye being one of them) thank u dragons everyone say thank you dragons. Also everyone say thank you to soken and uematsu. And the cinematic animators. And the fight designers. And

and — I’m not sure where post-heavensward stops and pre-stormblood begins, but I assume it ends with nidhogg and starts with the warriors of darkness? in that case I’ll hold my opinions of pre-stormblood since I’m not done. bless it for having alisaie leveilleur. goodnight

[snapscube]

are there any ways to make ffxiv level grinding easier? i'm trying conjurer at the moment and i find the level grinding to be very tedious at times

im going to assume you’re asking cause conjurer/whm isn’t ur main and u don’t have access to the MSQ experience, which would be my first suggestion for anyone looking to level up of course. just play the MSQ. but since, again, im assuming this is an alt job, here are some tips (you should be doing these anyway tbh)

1. buy a shit ton of boiled eggs cheap from any city’s food vendor and always have ur food buff on, that 3% exp bonus adds up

2. get ur hands on accessories that give u an exp buff on top of that. this includes things like the “brand new ring” or if you’ve preordered dawntrail you can use the azeyma’s earrings for an exp buff lasting all the way to 90

3. if you’re in a free company, use company actions to have “the heat of battle” running in the background as you level, which is a company-wide exp bonus. if you’re not in a free company, then by leveling up your grand company squadron (the little AI bot characters u can take into ARR dungeons) u can unlock “squadron missions”. one of these missions will reward you with a set of scrolls that give you the same exp bonus as the heat of battle, no free company needed, but it only lasts a couple hours as opposed to the heat of battle’s 12+. u can stock up as many as u want though, it just takes a bit for the bots to run the mission.

4. DO YOUR ROULETTES. the roulettes that are going to give you the absolute best bang for your buck in terms of leveling are: leveling (duh), main scenario roulette, frontline (this one is very easy to ignore but you really shouldn’t, it’s a TON of exp), and alliance raid. these should get you at least a full level or two every day at higher levels, and sometimes way more if you’re early enough. but half of them don’t unlock until 50.

5. do wondrous tails! if you’ve finished heavensward and you have idyllshire unlocked, you can also unlock wondrous tails! wondrous tails is a book with a weekly checklist of duties to take part in, and each one grants you a sticker. if you get all 9 stickers from doing any duties in the set, you can then turn the book into rewards. this is the important part: a finished wondrous tales book will give you EXACTLY HALF of the exp required for your next level up, no matter what number it is. and this exp bonus will apply to whatever job you TURN THE BOOK IN on. doesn’t matter how or as what job you did the duties themselves as, just equip the job right before you turn your book in and viola. free half a level. you do this every week, it’s very easy!

6. leveling white mage (or any healer) specifically, your main focus if you’ve run out of roulettes and are just wanting to get the absolute best exp bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time possible: do dungeons. just run your most recently available dungeons as much as possible. dungeons give a TON of exp, and healers have easily the shortest queue times of any role in the game. repeat ur most recent dungeon unless the level number ends in a 0. level 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 dungeons give crap exp because they were designed with level caps in mind. they give other good rewards sometimes, but while you’re focused on leveling, avoid those.

i hope this was at all helpful haha. other readers feel free to post more leveling tips in the replies if i missed anything.

[plounce]

my awesome heavensward rewrite thoughts

how loyal aymeric is to the church could be in more doubt (although he's always Handsome And Nice) until we bring him evidence of the history rewrite and he reveals himself as a good guy through and through. we hear rumors of him being the pope's bastard, and that playing into the uncertainty how deep in the church's pocket he is?

there should be very little time between haurchefant's death and confronting the pope - or at least the heavens' ward. if we got a dungeon or a trial where we fight our way through the pope's boys all powered up, and then either 1. we go into primaled-up pope as a trial right after 2. he flees to elsewhere and we pursue - that's where we meet tiamat, maybe?

there is very little reason for haurchefant to be stuck at camp dragonhead for most of hvw. no job/class quests there involve him as a speaking role (or really mention him at all). he should be way more present in ishgard and as a member of your "party."

i feel that stronger connections could be drawn between the gnath/vath and ishgard/heretics (indoctrinated believers of the state religion vs free-thinkers ekeing out an existence on the fringes)

more development of "heretical" beliefs and practices. i feel like we couldve used a cutscene of like... a guy giving a monologue, drinking dragon blood, and then transforming

tbh i don't know what purpose dusk vigil serves for the plot. i think it might be a 1.0 reference, definitely in its story - maybe the location too?? i need to find out more about coerthas in 1.0. i think that dusk vigil could instead be replaced with a dungeon that expands upon "heresy" more - either in what heretics believe/do, or the ways ishgard creates heretics. freeing "falsely accused" people from an ishgardian black site? the ishgardian military being of two arms: the church police being in charge of rooting out heresy while aymeric's temple knights focus on the dragons. inside vs outside.

ysayle... more ysayle backstory... it wouldve been cool if we met someone who knew her before she got brain-blasted with shiva's memories (in tailfeather? giving that town more of a story purpose?).

iirc ysayle's crisis of identity just sort of happened, she left the party in the churning mists to freak out, popped up in ishgard to stop a heretic/underclass uprising (let them revolt!!), and then she kills herself without like speaking to you again. you don't really get to meaningfully say goodbye. i feel that her and haurchefant's deaths could been more of a one-two punch (if she Has to die).

i think ysayle could have not died. i think she could have just run away to try to become Nobody. and then she could return later. i think her deathierves a "well... guess she must redeem herself through death...." which: boooooo. boringggg.

to be frank i don't think the sea of clouds as a location is essential to or really serves heavensward's story. i feel that somewhere else would have been more beneficial. perhaps a map that includes the ruins of ferndale (estinien's hometown)? maybe that's been taken and re-settled by "heretics"?

i think that haurchefant should have been a more consistent party member. he could be used to provide two different perspectives: 1. someone who has lived within and understands ishgardian nobility 2. an ishgardian who is open to the outside world and has had regular contact with outsiders. i feel that we don't really get a sense of his own personal beliefs outside of "i'm in ishgard's military" and "im on your side my angel!!". it would be nice if we got more reactions to msq events from him - like alphinaud (our buddy) but with the ishgard perspective

if the uprising in the brume was actually allowed to happen... ok earlier in the expansion we meet hilda and she's like hiiii. buzz off ♥ [more children throwing snowballs at us] and then later on we return to ishgard from the churning mists, new lore in our minds, to a city in chaos (ysayle has faked her death & her followers think she's been assassinated, they launch an uprising? there's been an order for mass conscription, the poor have had it and don't want to die en masse?), and we actually have to INTERACT with a class uprising with hilda as a leader of the poor. and then negotiations are being made, haurchefant and alphinaud are trying to handle it - aymeric is like hey. you guys seem really strange. what's going on. and we tell him ishgard's true history, and then.... whew! he's like Oh Fuck. i need to go confront the pope (my dad). don't let talks disintegrate, i'll brb. and then in the middle of things, one of hilda's agents and lucia break down the door - LORD AYMERIC IS BEING HELD HOSTAGE BY THE POPE, DEMANDING THE HOUNDS STAND DOWN! maybe hilda gets kidnapped too...? idk theres a lot of ways you could order these things bc ishgard could be suuuuuch a powder keg.

haurchefant should have been killed in full view of the ishgardian population so that he's the people's martyr as well + more reason for ishgard to turn on the old ways

alphinaud should have had equally strong relationships with estinien and with ysayle. for a game with a blank-slate protag you can't count on every player thinking about their character forming those connections with either/both characters, so alphinaud works well as an audience substitute. and seeing this littleboy care about them may also bolster the audience's feelings toward them - i only cared about estinien for most of the game because alphinaud cared about him.

so in that way i do think it's good for him to go on the camping trip. plus it's good for his character arc to have to learn camping. gather sticks, boy. also, hvw is the alphinaud expac where stb is the alisaie expac - if we keep one, we keep the other. i like the balance of that.

alphinaud also keeps us tied into our character's history in ARR - it would be kinda weird if we got an entirely new cast of core characters, and it helps us remember the scions and kind of worry about them in the back of our minds. plus we instinctively want to protect him.

the dravanian hinterlands only play into msq in that "we have to go get the doodad from matoya to break into azys lla!" which is stupid. it's VERY important in the patches though so we gotta keep it. i would add an aetheryte though. stares.

i also think idyllshire serves a good purpose of showing "here's a different way of living - here we are, living with people who are different from us, and getting along." compare to the various ways in which ishgard, the heretic settlement in ferndale, and tailfeather live. it's a nice spot of hope.

my restructuring thought is that we get into the hinterlands via a secret route that heretic rebels reveal to us because we're following thordan's aether trail or whatever. azys lla is hidden directly above new sharlayan/idyllshire - that's one of the reasons why the forum decided to settle there, matoya reveals to us.

we hear from our contacts in idyllshire (who we know from our friends among heretics and outcasts) (also, idyllshire as an outpost for people escaping from the war?) that there's an old witch guarding the entrance to the tower that can help us breach azys lla. it's matoya!

y'shtola's body recently appeared in matoya's cave. she won't wake up. matoya's been taking care of her. we learn about their relationship. matoya being sad about yshtola's current state mirrors our grief over haurchefant. matoya agrees to help us and let us through the first of the barriers to azys lla because we're shtola's little friends.

sharlayans keeping secrets, reaching high into the sky (HEAVENSWARD, EVEN - it would be cool if almost every dungeon had you going up in some way) (and then low into the ground, in the patches). a tower that is the way to azys lla, but many barriers exist to keep intruders out.

great gubal library is such a weird fuckin second-to-last dungeon - it takes place in between the vault and ARF!! what? huh? we're breaking up that high?

the first part of the dungeon is just the sharlayan defenses, but... something's kind of weird. and then you're fighting the first boss, a mammet, and halfway through it gets killed by a member of the heavens' ward! who took over the tower, and heard you when you came in! and then rest of the dungeon is fighting through them in the ruins theyve made of sharlayan stuff - something something 'the church destroying history and knowledge to retain its power'.

finally we reach azys lla. tbf i don't think the empire needs to be there. cut the garleans. some leavings of sharlayan are around, though.

thordan has activated some allagan defenses, we deal with those as we navigate through the zone. shouldn't take that much time. the important thing is that we talk to tiamat, who is also grieving and hates what that grief drove her to do. that's such an important conversation. also leaves a bit of potential character stuff for the player's brain, if you choose to draw the connection between your wol and tiamat - is this how your wol will process grief? are they grieving?

we confront thordan - estinien is so fucking mad that the cause he's been fighting for, the war that ruined his life, has all been a lie meant to prop up this man. the anger overtakes him, he transforms, he flies off.

we left alphinaud back at the sharlayan tower - he's been trying to fix the controls so we can get back down (and, if you were defeated, to call for help) btw. estinien does fly by him and he's like NOOOOO ESTINIENNNNNNN and estinien SLICES HIM WITH HIS SPEAR and alphinaud FALLS DOWN AND IS BLEEDING!! this is a cutscene, the wol isn't there, but YOU see it and it adds to your stress. :D

thordan's like "oh so sad... you don't have any friends... WELL I DO HA HA HA" and then he brings out the ascians he's been conspiring with!! the first half of the fight are lahabrea/igeyorhm combined into ascian prime (you defeated me as one... but can you defeat TWO ascians??), and then when you finish them - cutscene. thordan eats them for power. mwa ha ha ha!! PHASE TWO. we fight him, we kill him. he doesn't bring his boys out but does some crazy dragon-blood shit - kinda like golbez - and maybe some ascian stuff.

alphinaud's okay - he patched himself up. he should probably see a doctor though. you limp away, having won and survived, but with lots of rebuilding and healing to do...

the post-credits cutscene montage, in no particular order: y'shtola's eyes opening. thancred appearing in the dravanian forelands - we don't know it's him by sight. we don't see his face or identifying markings. niddstinien Lurking Around. people leavings flowers and votives at The Grave Of Lady Shiva - ysayle is assumed dead by her followers. (she is not. she is comatose in a small isolated village in dravania where non-ishgardian elezen have been carrying on pre-dragonsong war beliefs and practices.)

[ferrocyan]

i didnt get to take the screenshots i wanted for then vs now comparison of tart yet but you can have this

long ramble ahead

it feels especially fitting to do from this account bc it was the first tart i made! theres been quite a bit of changes to her since then, like her hair color used to be a lighter blue, and the eyes were a darker green. i decided to change that immediately on remaking my account though, so tart now has very dark blue hair and light green eyes

heavensward was where her look rly came together for me, including the modern legend hair i won by sheer luck from a fete prize

personality-wise there was also a definitive shift in post-arr. id initially made her as a genki, happy-go-lucky kinda girl, but also decided that her background is connected to ishgard, so then getting to see up close what the deal with ishgard was made me change her to have a bit of a cold loner exterior that the scions had to wait a while to crack. just like any coerthan would, hahah. and then theres the bloody banquet. ive said before that i came up w the lore abt tarts parents before her, though at the time i had trouble connecting that to her story and character. until the bloody banquet happened. bc that plot point perfectly resonated w the themes and parallels id set up from her background. fuck yes. that was the moment tarts character made complete sense to me. then post-stormblood (the ghymlit dark) and shadowbringers (the cardinal virtues) only gave further fuel for developments in the exact direction i wanted, so im feasting, im so happy

in stormblood i thought her character was pretty much solid, visually and narratively, and then bam. the scene with lyse and her sisters dress. it brought about a very.. specific emotion in tart, something like admiration and love, mixed with self-consciousness and a sense of inattainability abt how lyse presents as a woman. and i was like oh my god. you are transgender. that was when i retroactively made tart transfem. it wasnt something i meant to do from the start but it does make total sense, so it was a happy revelation

then almost exactly a year ago i made tart into a catboy

the reasons are.. well the first look we got at the graphical update i did not like the catgirl (i. i still am not a big fan. it just looks wrong..) but that was just a convenient excuse for me to change tarts gender, bc tbh when she functions more as an avatar for me than just a character i do feel slightly uncomfy being perceived as a girl u_u not that ive ever been misgendered by anyone that knows im a guy, i just want peoples first assumption of "me" to be a man. so uhh its not rly made in consideration w tart as a character, and i still feel slightly bad abt that, but unfortunately his character development post-endwalker as a man slaps pretty hard so im afraid there is no going back. there is going forward and making tart transfem again though, itll happen if we believe in her!!

ok thats all for now, have a graphically updated catboy for the road

[archer3-13]

was gonna create a more in depth list, but instead heres a rapid fire bullet points on my general impression of stormbloods main story before post patch content

no specific complaints gameplay wise.

theres a good story here that wants to break out of stormbloods uneven story.

highlights included the doma portion of the story and the azim steppe, though that was in part because i was playing a xaela wol whos self imagined backstory fit the story being told.

the low point was probably the very start of things if im being honest. stormblood doesn't make a strong first impression riding off the spectacular ending of heavensward post patch content.

returning to ala mhigo from doma, things get a bit better in the land of ala mhigo story wise. ultimately though i find the overall package of stormbloods main story to be disappointing, because it feels like either one of these stories deserved an entire expansion to themselves to flesh everything out. instead they awkwardly share a single body.

lyse is the biggest casualty so to speak of stormbloods uneven writing i would say. its not hard to see what they're trying to do with her, and i would even say it has a lot of potential for a really moving character story as she matures into a leader worth following. to paraphrase the not youth however, stormblood doesn't "cook" lyses story enough for the resolution to hit in the way it needed to. we are informed about lyse having great leadership qualities, but we never really get to see them in action, where as what we see her doing is usually pretty emphatically not leadership things but rather adventurer things. at worst she comes across as a figurehead once again imitating others for lack of her own individual qualities, at best it feels like her development happened when you weren't looking. not helped by how she ironically just feels like diet yida in terms of her character traits outside of that.

speaking of informed traits though. zenos. for a supposed tactical genius master general of unorthodox strategies, we really don't get to see any of that do we. what we do get to see is a perfect exemplar of garlean colonial policy and ideology, a man so used to the power and privilege of his position that he wields his awesome might with little care or regard for the consequences. a beatstick who can power his way through any problems and takes that as intrinsic proof of his righteousness and mastery. but thats not what they're going for, they're going more for a hxh hisoka kind of character, a warrior savant of such uncontrollable bloodlust it affects everything he does and thinks, and a man who lives only for the hunt of powerful prey. thing is, with hisoka it makes sense and facilitates what happens in the plot. he acts capricious and allies with the heroes on multiple occasions well also allying with the villains only to betray everyone, because it fits with his motivations. hes out only for himself and his own amusement, and enjoys risking his life on seemingly impossible bets or against the insanely powerful. hes incredibly strong, but whats most scary is that he fights very intelligently ontop of that strength to the point that chrollos best strategy to beat hisoka boils down to "overwhelm him with random bullshit", and it still doesn't work. zenos? as i said hes a beatstick, who spends most of the plot throwing money at the problem or sitting on his throne murdering people for bringing him bad news. he can't really have an opportunity to showcase his capriciousness thats fueled by his bloodlust, because hes the main antagonist to the point of a bottleneck. at most he pisses off in doma because he's bored but thats bare scraps for what a character like that would need. and then in the end, he fuses himself to a giant dragon god thing, and rule of thumb here. a hisoka esque character would never do that unless they're backs were to the wall and they were suppose to be showing how they aren't as hot shit as they claim. zenos just kinda does it cause he insinuates it was always his plan. and that blows.

hien was cool. as said i enjoy the doma and azim steppe part of the story, and hien was a breath of fresh air by virtue of having his head on his shoulders and a sense of humor that made him genuinely quite endearing in the sense it was written in an endearing way.

nero my beloved, you got the after credits thunder and lightning introduction you always deserved. i hope you enjoy that hate make out old man yaoi relationship with cid you glorious bastard.

[bluberryffxiv]

topic of the hour seems to be ardbert and his relation to the wol and its been making me ruminate on his relationship with bonana so lets ramble about that....but first i have to talk about mental illness. lol

so, the instigating action of nemona leaving home and starting her msq journey was her mom finally putting her foot down and forcing her to go to sharlayan, something shed been fighting against for years at that point. she did not take it very well at all, and in the days following she became a mess of anger and despondence and was pretty inconsolable, the world may as well have been ending for her at that point. which lead to her doing a lot of drastic and irrational things, one of which came very close to killing her

while she was unconscious she had a strange dream, in which she met another version of herself who acted very different. he was kind and gentle, and introduced himself as bonana (the nickname his friends used). he offered to trade places, promising to ease the burdens of life and carry onwards for nemona, stating that whenever she felt ready she could trade back

when bonana was woken up by sasabe, it was as if he was a different person. no longer moping around, he acted with clarity and made a plan. he realized there was a ship bound for eorzea, leaving before the one he was supposed to be on. so he made his preparations, cutting and dyeing his hair and donning a new wardrobe, essentially discarding his old life and making way for the one hed always dreamed of

from then on he was just bonana, the guy who was eager to help anyone and everyone, with only a vague recollection of a promise made to...someone. whenever he got asked why he did what he did this is all he would answer with, if he answered at all. to any aware of him and sasabe they assumed she was the person he meant, and she herself believed it too because he had also made a promise to her in the past (in reality he had repressed that memory because it was made after a very traumatic incident).

it wouldnt be until heavensward when he picks up dark knight that nemonas presence starts to leak through in the form of fray, giving voice to the thoughts and feelings bonana thought he'd left behind. and it happens again later with myste, this time giving form to the pent up guilt and grief he couldnt process. but neither time really stuck because he wasnt ready to acknowledge what he'd done

which finally brings us to shadowbringers and how this all relates to ardbert! at this point bonana, as a personality, is breaking down because he was something made out of a childs idea of a hero, and he simply wasnt built to weather the kinds of things he'd faced as the warrior of light, with the events of shb bringing him to his very limits. however, ardbert ended up being a very welcome presence because during downtime they got to talk and understand each other better, and bonana came to realize how eerily similar the two of them were. he ended up being the first person he'd confide in about his dissociative nature and poor memory, and ardbert genuinely seemed to understand

so just like the exarch, losing him after the soul fusion felt like losing a piece of his heart, ironically (keep in mind bonana is horrible at dealing with loss). ardbert became another bullet on the list of things that lead to his breakdown at the very end of the patches.

but now we know ardbert didnt completely disappear, and i think during anemone arc he gains a complete understanding of the situation, and wants nothing more than to reach through to nemona and her how much she is loved, as herself. literally im just imagining him sitting somewhere deep in the back of her head as this guy throughout endwalker, until the oddity nature of ultima thule finally allows him to help revive bonana

[freyito]

(guy who's only posting updates and reminders) NOT TO BOTHER ANYONE but i am STILL WRITING FOR HSR DONT WORRY. im afraid people think i switched my hyperfixations so suddenyl to elden ring but its like...... my hsr and elden ring hyperfixations coexist. very peacefully actually. it's just a change writing for elden ring cause well. its lowkey like a whole different language i have to learn which is actually so fun (i'd kill myself /j if i wrote elden ring with MODERN ENGLISH. anyways.)

and ive said it before but im making the shift to longer fics too.. i really enjoy quality over quantity cause it feels like my writing improves the more i write yk...

also im STILL on the job hunt. i'll most likely start working two jobs so my time to write will decrease drastically... and ontop of that i got back into ffxiv recently. so lowkey all my mind wants to do is dress up my viera and kick my feet at npcs.

on the ffxiv topic i will also most likely be writing some ffxiv fics too lol. big fan of estinien here. big fan. his biggest fan, if you will. like several years ago after i finished heavensward i made a blog dedicated to writing the ishgardians. never wrote anything tho lol.

ANYWAYS. ON TOP OF ALLLLLLL OF THAT. im burnt out and it sucks. so im like replenishing my energy by playing games. a lot of the time im on my pc and laptop at the same time, and i use my laptop to write. i have a tendency to see certain things as work when they're just meant to be fun (ex: streaming, drawing) and since i want to become an author, my fun little blog i made to take a break from writing turned into "this is work". so im trying to convince myself that this is FUN again !!!!!! yaaaaaay. anyways!!!!! THATS ALL

[redwayfarers]

(currently playing: heavensward patches, no spoilers please)

okay, i think im ready to close the minfilia chapter of nika's love life. see, theirs was a love that could never happen; not only was it (probably) one-sided, but also nika seems to be romantically interested in people that are distant and therefore he has less chances with them (seems kinda sus to me but to each their own i guess? also does eorzea have the concept of therapy) so he himself never really envisioned it working out. dude's basically been pining for her ever since he joined the scions in his early 20s. that's uhhh.... literal years. anyway.

adding to that is the fact that theirs is a relationship that follows the knight and the lady model, in a more chivalrous and courtly sense (side note: nika as a knight is an image that keeps sending me. he is so knight-coded, in a strange way) which was a setup that worked for them but had one major flaw: it gave minfilia the ability to use his skills to the scions' ends, over and over again, and while i'm sure she didn't do so with a harmful intent, she did end up harming him. she did end up pushing him into a role he doesn't like and doesn't want, but keeps accepting because he can't stop.

so all those factors mixing together ensure that while not intentionally so, nika and minfilia's relationship is... as hurtful as it is beneficial. and the romance actualized would make this dynamic so much worse.

and when she joins hydaelyn, she basically softly lets him know to give up on any hope, for his own sake, because she's... she's gone now. she's not a human anymore. he feels torn up about it (esp when he starts catching feelings for artoirel) and feels like he's betraying her, but then when they meet later for the last time she's just like. hey it's fine to move on and find love again, forget about me.

and it's a final no that hopefully allows him to start moving forward, but another good thing is that it finally makes him feel so shitty that he's like, 'well talking to my moms who i haven't really spoken to since i was 19 years old might not feel as shitty as this' so maybe he spends the few weeks between that whole warrior of darkness thingie and tidings from gyr abania quest in limsa, in his moms' shop, helping out and trying to repair those relationships!!

and to think it's taken him years... years pre-game + arr, arr patches, heavensward AND heavensward patches to just. beat his own nerves. he beats being ten times his size but can't beat his own head. smdh. (joking obviously nika really needs therapy and this isn't funny at all.)

maybe he'll even kiss artoirel at some point!!! who knows!!!

[shalpilot]

Hello again! Sorry for previous ask😅 now I'm better

So, today it's gonna be short as well

1. Who is this blue haired guy from ffxiv?

Like, oc/npc/etc?

2. Is he Kiril's friend or smth? Need to know their relationship

3. Maybe some hc about him?

I almost hit "send" without being anonymous

And also

Congratulation on graduation 🎊🎓

That's all for now😘

hihi!! thank you :) we win this

1.) hes an npc!

2.) i plead the 5th. nono ahjfgehg okay i havent done oc x canon in a very very long time. but i really love how cute haurchefant is about the WOL he really is their biggest fan. and kiril is kinda Iffy about affection so having a guy whos just super supportive of him would be good for him i think* As of right now its like, dubiously canon bc i want to keep my options a lil open since im not that far in the game and also see **

3.) dont really have too many...

-between kiril secretly picking up dark knighting and visiting his Good Friend over at Camp Dragonhead i don't think he was home very much

-it was very one-sided from Haurchefant at first with Kiril being a bit skittish. hes not used to positive attention from ppl who dont like, want anything out of it

-i dunno :) i just think its cute

okay so the * is Heavensward spoilers so beware below the cut

*okay. good for him until he loses yet another person to the corruption of the Holy See and is left alone in in Ishgard again (but this time is different- this time he has a job to do and friends with him which you'd think would soften the blow even the tiniest amount but it really doesnt work that way now does it) Like. he wants revenge twofold and this one is fresh, raw, still bleeding... It almost feels too mean to him which is another reason i'm like hesitating to make it canon. at the end of the day i dont HATE kiril i dont WANT to see him miserable even if it is a little fun but. i would like for him to be able to be happy actually

**options are, i guess, open, considering, he is , dead, , . augh.

[maguneedsalife]

WoL Lore: Dark Knight

from a wolqotd on twitter: Is the DRK questline/job canon to your WoL/OC? At what point in the MSQ does it fit into your WoL/OC's canon? Have you changed things to fit it better within your canon?

i ended up writing a whole twitter thread on this, which im cross posting here for posterity

For Aoife, DRK 30-70 all happens during Stormblood, while she is on break from being the WoL. Her 'excuse' for picking up a tank job is wanting to take up Haurchefant's torch, but she also just. needed a way to process her grief, and Fray ended up being that for her.

Aoife didn't really vibe with Fray at first, and found their personality and outlook grating (she's never tired of being nice and doesn't want to go apeshit). As the early quests progressed, she started recognizing that some of Fray's advice rang true - she had had thoughts like that at one point or another, but kept them buried out of embarrassment or a need to not stir the pot. By the end of DRK 50 she came to understand that they were trying to help her learn to set boundaries - just by astral projecting a version of herself that isnt afraid to say no lmao.

(i skipped talking abt 50-60 on twitter, but only bc i didn't really feel like aoife had any noteworthy experiences with the sidurgu/rielle leg of this questline lmao)

60-70 was where the DRK story finally clicked for me, and for Aoife it really helped put into focus that she had spent the back half of Heavensward blaming herself for what happened to Haurchefant. For Aoife, Myste represented the desire to see her dead loved ones again - childlike, maybe, but a desire that's natural for anyone who's lost someone they care about. Fray helped her come to terms with both her grief and her longing. To miss those who have gone is natural - to obsess over the past is unhealthy.

Do not seek forgiveness, for it will not ease the burden. It weighs as it should.

Listen to my voice. Listen to our heartbeat. Listen... I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you...

Those words finally released her from the guilt she'd been carrying all this time, and she was able to give herself permission to move forward. To appreciate the past for what it was, but not be shackled by it any longer.

(side note, the parallels between Myste's apparitions and Emet Selch's Amaurot are not lost on her later. It was a chilling realization that, had she been in Emet Selch's shoes, she can't say she wouldn't have gone down the same path he did)

Finally, drk 80 happens post-shb and uses an original Fray monologue based on the japanese text instead of the english text for the most part. sorry localization team, you guys really beefed it on fray half the time

so As You Can See i have a lot of Thoughts about Dark Knight for aoife lmao....... this isn't even getting into the DSR AU timeline where she picks up Dark Knight in early Heavensward instead, which gives her access to a tank LB3 at the Vault :)

[c0rpseductor]

and btw that like core dark knight trait of "fuck it im not begging for good favor if this is what you see in me then go ahead and see it" is part of why i decided pfeil becomes a dark knight in heavensward, bc that rejection by The People once you've been framed really provoked this feeling in him i think. like even once your name is cleared how do you ever regain your trust in people again knowing they've turned on you when you're innocent before?

idk something drives me crazy about it like. this guy who's already carrying around a heap of prior trauma who becomes War Hero Warrior of Light at 17 and despite how like, horrifying the whole climb and subsequent expectations and losses are, he's more than happy to endure all of it because he loves The People and The People love him! and then they don't, and it's not even his fault, and he's separated from his loved ones and like. oughhhh. that mental collapse was always going to happen because nobody like him in his position would be able to bear so much concurrent trauma and fighting but the element of betrayal there really gets me.

and then he just never trusts like that again, he always thinks "ordinary people" as a collective will turn on him and stops even trying to win their approval. he just resigns himself to pushing people away and banking on their good favor mostly being at their convenience and dependent on his utility. and in a way he's relieved that he's taken on this persona that unsettles people because if they never put him on that pedestal again they sure as hell can't pull him down a second time. (and of course it's lonely and painful and hurts when he remembers how it felt when everyone liked and admired him, but when you think that kind of love is just a trick and you can't really have genuine acceptance you convince yourself you don't want it anyway.)

[fisherrprince]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but what are your blind thoughts going into stormblood? Although you mentioned having received slight spoilers, despite what you may or may not know, are you hopeful or wary about the upcoming expansion ahead of you and ch'ahri?

I dunno hardly AAANNYTHING here is a complete list of my thoughts

kugane tower jumping puzzle (I will not be attempting to win this one) (I’m decent at jumping puzzles, but only because I’m on controller and enjoy platformers)

Godzilla 💕💕💕💕 no one told me Godzilla was here (seriously even the music and laser beams were goji-like) - they seem to be leaning into some tropes this time (with Gosetsu as well)

people seem to like the omega raids? excited for those. Halfway thru Alexander as we speak and those are fun I love gobbie

i am slightly wary going into the actual story content, since the concept of freeing ala mhigo is a healthy amount of detached from real-world allegories but also a healthy amount more connected to real world conflict around annexed powers and occupied peoples than we’ve previously gone into. It’s very grounded - the primal is a consequence, rather than a part of the conflict, and I expect them to split the focus. Insofar as post-arr and heavensward are, I mostly like how they handle complex societal topics and I trust them as far as not mucking it up entirely goes, but I put myself at a literary distance about the whole thing because im not one to speak about if they’re gonna handle it well. I’m gonna watch and mess around in the world they give me first. As far as pre-stormblood goes, in my not-a-guy-who-knows-things opinion, they handled it about a 7/10? Some dialogue bothered me, some things were like dam the horrors of war and desperation so true😔 (this is a positive). Some things were like yo is that Godzilla

I do LIKE the tone though. I think they did a tonal shift into something a little darker and brought in a Silly Guy to balance it, and it feels like they have a complete grip around their overarching story and world now.

I also wonder if they’re doing two things at once and how they’ll handle it? I want to visit Doma. I want to visit doma I want to visit that underwater bubble city you look like the monkie kid dragon place. Ch’ari will probably like it too, he’s one of those weird cats who likes water and being in water

i wasnt all that interested in the trailer aside from pretty location, it seems very stereotypical fantasy asia world tour. meteor buddy grow your hair out you look so good in Dawntrail

im trying to keep my opinions my own, since I hardly hear anyone talk about stormblood, sandwiched as it is between heavensward (everyone’s first exposure to the good kush) and shadowbringers (everyone’s perfect baby). So, about 1/4 wary of the msq content, 1/2 excited for the new dungeons and fights (is all of stormblood going to have 15+ enemies coming at you at once?? My frames get scared unless I’m wired into the internet and go down to 30 fps when they all load in), 1/4 excited to see new environments and new characters again :]

Ari is always excited to go to a new place. He always tries to make a good first impression, because whatever you do next (even if you’re rude) is colored by your first impression, and it sometimes fails and sometimes works to his benefit. He didn’t have a good reputation in Limsa, and it was shaky AT BEST in Ishgard, this is the first city he goes where either no one knows him or if they do know him it’s in a positive light. New experience for kitty

[wisismydumpstat]

Omg there’s too many on this liiisttt here’s one for now but tbh 😭 I think I’m gonna have to ask more for your wol cuz im CURIOUS WITH MANY THINGS

29. Did your WoL suspect anything was amiss with Urianger or the Crystal Exarch? Did they feel betrayed? Upset? When the truth finally emerged?

And also for @mmorpg-escapism , who asked the same question!

She never really trusted the Exarch, but she had expected better of Urianger after so long, and when the truth came out she was pissed. After so much game of being constantly manipulated, the stress of all the shit on the First, being half-dead because of light overdose and having Emet-Selch just around being Emet-Selch, people manipulating her again because appparently she can't handle the truth and be trusted to act like an adult was the last straw.

Nowadays she still feels uncomfortable around them both. She's cordial and polite because you have to have a functional team when you're trying to save the world, but she's young and emotional and Tired and she stopped forgiving everything around Heavensward.

[plounce]

as someone whos played ffxiv for almost 8 years now i gotta say its SO exciting to see youve started playing. i really enjoy seeing you talking about trc and kurofai (unfortunately i know absolutely nothing about xmen so it goes right over my head) and so im excited to see any thoughts you have about the ffxiv story and characters!

HEEHEEHEE. most of my ffxivposting has been in a thread on my twt priv, but after the recent botslaughter im gonna try and move it over here.

im at the beginning of stormblood. here are my thoughts:

as i said previously, in ARR i was very meh on alphinaud. i have a grudge against his ARR va (due to critical role), i was like "WHY are we starting a PARAMILITARY ORG", and i was kind of like hey. im playing a 6ft tall elf lady with a huge axe. you fancy little twerp dont boss me around. the end of ARR was soooo crazy and good though, really kicked the plot into gear for me, and those cutscenes were like WHOA!! OMG THE GUY FROM THE BEGINNING CUTSCENE... and in heavensward he became my little boy. because he basically reversed all the things i didnt really like about him. new VA. constant regret and shame about the crystal braves. and everyone was like awww hahaha youre a nice little boy. and he is. he is a boy. and he's polite. and he got a new outfit that covered his midriff, which i appreciated.

minfillia... im sorry. her VA was so insanely bad. and i never really DID anything with her that made me feel attached to her. she felt very bland and generic. i was like okay cool 👍 see ya. i also think her outfit was so blaaaahhhh like it gave me girl next door final fantasy character, NOT leader of an NGO, which would have been more appealing to me.

y'shtola: one of my mutuals is constantly posting her very cute WoL/yshtola fanart and i thought i would like a bit more than i presently do... i like her! i just feel like she hasnt gotten to do very much that isnt going "hmm.. aether." i think it's delightful that she shares a VA with sera from dragon age. bitches with bangs 4 lesbians

urianger: when i first saw urianger i was aghast. i was like. PEOPLE ARE HORNY FOR THAT THING? but now that ive seen more of his shb/edw outfit im like aha i see. you have gender. you're either like "do not perceiveth me" or "dripping with gold in a lightweight backless gown". i really enjoyed his undercover outfit with the WoD. i don't think he did anything wrong. he was like "yeah i did lie to everyone and help manipulate events to send minfilia to a different data center. i feel absolutely awful about it, i wish my trolley problem principles had not made me deceiveth thou all, i am a horrible villain, pray do not feel compelled to forgive me" and i was like nah youre good 👍 like she isnt DEAD. plus he always tried to help me a little bit when he could. i like his funny voice. i like how in ARR he was voiced by fenris dragonage. take those goggles and hood off again mx tism

tataru: if lalafells didn't look like that. i would be shipping my WoL with her. i think she is so cute and fun and a delight. she is a joy. my girl JUGGLES!!!!! she makes OUTFITS!!!!!!!!! she has A KETTLE WITH A FANCY NAME!!!!!!!!!! and she works so hard. im so glad she got to come with us to ishgard. she is my joy. my light...

thancred: i have heard tell that he really leaves behind his initial lothario characterization, and i really have not seen it in forever, which made ARR thancred perfectly fine to me. i was prepared for him to be much more egregious. i wish i knew him a bit better before he got possessed. i was like oh okay! yeah i guess i havent seen him in a while. which made me sad because i love possession storylines i think they are so juicy. his ponytail and rattee (like a ratstache but a goatee) are funny to me. thancred nakey images were funny. there was a moment towards the end of hvw when he came back and i talked to him in ishgard between convos with nobles and he said stuff that was very commiserating and i was like okay i have decided you and my WoL are complaining friends. sipping the haterade together. i think he's like 5'7". like with alphinaud, the character development in this game has really surprised me with how effective it feels. i look forward to seeing him grimly yet compassionately fail forward even more. and to be a single dad. aforementioned mutual (who i know through klapollo) is into thancred/urianger so im also looking forward to confining them into the yaoi compartment

cid: HE IS MY FRIEND :) i love how he's a short king. i like how he was simply like "fascism and imperialism are bad. i am going to go fight against it by building big airships :)" no qualms no struggle just knew what was right and went and did it. he's like a gay older coworker who you go out for drinks with sometimes and invites you to barbeques. i enjoy him and nero's turbodivorce saga.

alisaie: i completely forgot to do all the bahamut raids in ARR so when she showed up post-hvw i was like oh it's time for the girltwin! and she was like "oh we've worked together already :)" and i was like oh god. we only had one conversation. oops. so far i think she's a delight. i have heard that she's a bit of a lesbo. good for her. love that she gets a sword and she gets to be the mean one of the two twins. i cant wait for her little red jacket. looking forward to more >:)

krile: have not seen much of her so far but i LOVE how she has a cloak with cat ears, so cute. LOVE how she teases alphinaud. im like yes... shared character history... quite fun...

ysayle: I LOVE YOU DRAGON ELSAGARD I LOVE YOUUUUUU BIIIIIIIIITCH... I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU. i love her style. i love her political convictions. i love her gap moe with the moogles. i think my WoL had a crush on her. i think it's messed up that during the scene where the WoL and alphinaud are prying the eyes off of estinien, she touches alphinaud's hand. she should be touching MY HAND!!!!!!!!!!!! all love to haurchefaunt but I BONDED WITH HER.

estinien: i know many people like estinien. every time he spoke a word at ysayle i felt like a barking like her guard dog. DONT YOU SPEAK TO MY GIRL IN THAT TONE YOU BROODYBOY SMELLMAN. SHUT UP. i assume he softens up now that he is retired from All That. i thought his relationship with alphinaud was very sweet - i liked when he taught alphinaud how to gather firewood. i think my WoL only tolerates estinien because alphinaud is so attached.

haurchefant: i was still barely reading dialogue in ARR when he was introduced. so he showed up and was like OMG HI AGAIN BESTIE!!!!!! and i was like oh! that man! one of my friends is gaymarried to him so he's like my gay brother-in-law. i am a lesbian and my WoL is also a lesbian so we were hagging/tyking (dyke tyke) out with each other. the facial animation on the WoL when he croaks was astoundingly good. i call him horsey

aymeric: well he certainly is competent, principled, and nice. one of the more handsome elezen men in the game. i know he's implied playersexual so i really need him to stop inviting me to dinner because i have had conversations with dude friends like that before and it is so painfully awkward. i think it is great that he committed fratricide AND popecide. wahoo!

lyse: i really enjoyed yda. yknow. i thought she was such a fun cockney karate bimbo. i didn't know she was lyse. i've heard about lyse. and how she is conspicuously the only blonde blue-eyed ala mhigan. and how she is a source of some of the collar-tugging politics in stormblood. sigh. so. i am now burdened with her.

raubahn: I LOVE RAUBAHNNNNNNNNNN I LOVE HIMMMM i love how he has a small adult son. i love how he is trying so hard. i love how he is so righteous and hardworking. the misery lolorito and ilberd put him through during hvw made me so mad on his behalf. when lolorito was like "oh, how we laughed at how upset you were!" i was like RAUBAHN. HE IS THE PERFECT HEIGHT FOR YOU TO JUST PUNT ACROSS THE TOWN SQUARE. PUNT HIM RAUBAHN. YOU DESERVE IT. and i love a one-armed king. kurogane swag

lucia: i think she is cool and fun. hahaha dont potentially be in love with aymeric queen youre so hot and cool and butch

matoya: SHE'S SO COOL. I LOVE HER DESIGN. HER VOICE ACTING. AND HER RUDENESS. AND OF COURSE THE FROGS

moenbryda: i thought she was so fun and cool. i was like cool!! new character!! big funny woman i love it!! and then near bluefog she dished about her childhood a little and i was like... is that a deathflag. and it was :(

okay thats all the npcs i can think to have anything to say about.

i was pleasantly surprised by the way that lalafells are not the lolibait/shotabait i had grimly prepared for them to be. they are just short funny guys for the most part. moving past that, i then got slammed into by the giant brick that says "BEAST TRIBES". i heard that the new writer has made their writing a lot better (apparently the alliance leaders acknowledge that they have been basically been doing genocide on these sentient beings, which is helping me push forward through stuff)! i do their quests really regularly because i like helping them out. i would really love to see someone with more expertise on the subject write about the presentation of indigenous peoples in ffxiv, because i think that there is a lot going on that is vital to critically inspect.

i have to go eat dinner now. but i will try to post more thoughts on here as i have them >:)

[ferrocyan]

a meandering talk about tart and "fray"

disclaimer that im talking abt half remembered events and quests bc i havent replayed any of them. were playing fast and loose here lol

because she woke up after the calamity w amnesia tart has an odd sense of what she is and isnt capable of. some things shes totally clueless abt but others she tries and is like oh huh i sort of know how to do this already. like carpentry, and combat

her mental process tends to go "idk if i can do this" (gets into a situation) "OH I TOTALLY CAN LETS GO" (gets overwhelmed) "shit shit shit gotta run". bc her knowledge base is limited and she works mostly off of feelings she gets into bad spots a lot www

so tart is sorta both recklessly brave and a coward. and also a dumbass who thinks if she runs she can probably escape (nope lmao) well it gets her beat up a lot but shes ok w it

tart goes into fighting arr primals w this reckless mindset and so far has been strong enough to come out on top. she wants more so she goes to gridania and hears about a mysterious primal that appears on occasion. goes "awesome gotta kill that guy" and challenges it to a fight

this is odin, and odin is way, way more than she bargained for (ooc: this is an extreme level fight that is labeled as normal, i was clueless and went into this w minimal information and got my ass fucking stomped)

as per habit tart wants to run. except. shes here w a padjal (basically children blessed by the forest elemental spirits) and only a handful of guards. tart is the only one who can fight a primal, everyone else would get corrupted and die. theres no way she can run, and for the first time shes terrified out of her mind

and gets killed by odins final "zantetsuken"

the primal disappears (defeated?) fortunately the padjal is able to beg the elementals to save tart, so shes not dead, just with a deep scar where she was cut from shoulder to chest. but something did get killed there.. her desire to run from danger

it doesnt die instantly either, much like tart herself. it takes until she gets framed for the murder of ul'dahs sultana, and she and the scions of the seventh dawn have to escape arrest. the rest of the scions sacrifice themselves for their leader minfilia and tart to escape. at the last moment minfilia stays behind and urges tart to go ahead, escape to ishgard where she would be safe

for a moment tart feels so relieved and takes the offer. but in safety the realization of what shes done hits like a truck. she vows to never, ever allow herself to run and leave someone else to die again. plant your feet on the ground, keep yourself chained in battle, and you do not die. (this is holmgang, the warrior skill that makes you unable to die for 10 seconds. i changed it to target self instead of chaining an enemy at the beginning of heavensward.. i had wanted to not do it but decided it worked as part of tarts story. incidentally i might have forgotten to use holmgang at all in the odin fight... lol)

so. thats good right! throughout heavensward the primals that the warrior of light has to fight ramp up in power. even her allies start to worry, especially alphinaud, but tart doesnt care. without the fear, primal battles are just fun. she fearlessly takes them on!

this is a great thing, right? its character development. though someone disagrees: tart herself

you cant really kill a desire, can you? you can repress it of course, and its easy to repress a desire when its been cut off from your heart. but its still there: the desire to run. to not be in danger. to be safe and unhurt and alive. it lives on, though separated by odins blade. it does not accept how tart has chosen to throw herself into mortal peril over and over. for what? for the ishgard that never accepted her? for the eorzea that took her heroism when its good for them and then threw her out like yesterdays garbage? why be a hero when it either gets you killed or taken advantage of? it was better before the calamity, when her parents were there and they still called the vigil home. if only we could repel those damned ishgardians and take back the vigil... if only theres a way to stop tart from her foolish heroism...

and so we arrive to fray. fray myste was a dark knight, someone working in the shadows of ishgardian society to protect the weak. it led him to be accused of heresy by the church and put into a trial by combat, the (unfair) result of which was his death. frays body was left to rot along the walls of the slums. ...and that is where the repressed desire of tarts heart finds itself a convenient vessel, becoming "fray"

frays dark knight crystal gives "fray" the ability to use dark magic, which they use to entice tart to interact w them. fray will teach her how to be a dark knight. tart agrees, and in learning the dark arts its not just tart who becomes more powerful, but fray too. bc tart has stopped just repressing fray outright and denying them completely, it gives fray the power to grow beyond what it is

at first fray hopes that tart would listen and stop this "heroism" madness. but the events of heavensward leaves tart w a certainty: she cant call coerthas home. shes a different person from who she was before losing her memories. now she is the warrior of light. thats all she can be. fray rejects this and attempts a hostile takeover of a fort in coerthas--since the vigils are gone, home is in ruins, then whitebrim front is the closest thing and fray will take it

they fail. defeated by tart. fray laments their fate but goes willingly back into her heart. only wanting to be heard as the feelings of love that they are

and so ends the tale of fray for now. i say that because. uhh. tart never does listen and only gets worse in the next expansions. heroism will only consume her further ...sorry fray.... u_u

then there is myste. or is there myste? myste is an orphan boy with a strange ability: he can manifest memories into almost-real people. he powers this ability with tarts dark knight crystal, by accident, and so shes roped into helping him out (with our other dark knight friends sid and rielle. theyre great, i just dont have anything to say abt them really)

similar to fray, myste is a manifestation of the warrior of lights broken heart.. this time their guilt and regrets. theyve saved the world and many people in it, but along the way theyve killed others and failed to save even more. thats why hes shaped like both haurchefant and ysayle.. friends who saved us for the price of their own lives. myste wants everyone to have another chance to live. he wants the dead to pass on peacefully, and the living to be unburdened by grief. myste wants to be forgiven for what hes done

now uh. i unfortunately have to tell you that tart has none of that shit. the vigils, dawn and dusk especially, were the first line of defense in ishgards war against dragons. tart was raised surrounded by death. its just a part of life, dying and killing. were all beasts getting slaughtered in the end. no need to feel guilty over upholding your survival above everyone else

its not impossible that tarts guilty conscience would break off and manifest as a boy, like fray, but the thing is the self-love and self-preservation that fray represents was a part of tart as a character, part of how i played her back in the beginning of the game. while guilt and regrets... not really. tart is stupid and easygoing but more importantly shes callous when it comes to "doing the right thing". anythings justifiable if its for the right thing. conscience isnt something she denies she just doesnt have one. lol

also the cardinal virtues former warriors of light of the first work way better for her to explore regrets and living at the cost of other peoples lives

ok whew that is all thanks for reading my ted talk on. literally what is this even about. i just like talking abt tarts "fray" and where it came from lmao alright im done