#like moenbryda

[tallbluelady]

"Do you have any thoughts on names, love? I have to admit that I've only thought of taking the suffix of my parents' name to honor them…"

"If honor doth be in consideration, I would ask that our son's name wouldst honor Master Louisoix's as well."

"So Louineaux then? It does have a rather pleasant ring to it."

"That it doth."

"And for a girl's name… Luninne would fit nicely, if Louineaux has a sister."

"Twould be almost as lovely as any daughter of thine, dearest."

[haunted-xander]

tbh one of, if not my absolute favorite part about ffxiv, is the small little moments/sections where nothing super big or like. Plot Important happens, but that give both the characters and us, the players, some much appreciated down-time to just. Feel things. And to process what's happened and what's going on or to just. Let us exist, in the moment. In a much more grounded and human way than when there's Big And Important Things happening.

The biggest(imo) and earliest example of this is right after the Waking Sands get raided in ARR, and WoL turns to the church for guidance. The entire section of us helping them gather and bury our fallen comrades, and especially bringing Noraxia home to Little Solace so she can be laid to rest in her homeland, by her own people and in their own cultural ways, was so so important to me.

Because it wasn't just replacable allies cast aside for shock value anymore, it was real. These deaths were real and meant something. I got to actually process what just happened, and I got to watch Banana go through it right with me. And not only did it make it feel real, it also gave me a sense of closure. These people, these friends, are dead, but they also got to be treated with the respect they deserve and laid to rest properly.

And that, more than anything else, made me want to save the world. It's grounded and grounding. This world, and these people, meant something to me, the player.

And there's tons of stuff like that throughout the game, especially in shadowbringers and endwalker.

In shb we have, for example, Lyna venting her anger and frustration after the sin eater attack in Lakeland. She's on her knees yelling on the verge of tears while punching the ground, so furious at her helplessness and powerlessness, at everyone having come so far yet set back because some megalomaniacal tyrant deemed it so.

In ew we have Urianger being approached by Moenbryda's parents, who confront him about not confiding in them about his grief. When Bloewyda starts to scold him, he of course reacts guiltily, believing they blame him, only for him to be completely caught off guard when she instead goes in to hug him, telling him he should have let them grieve with him. And he just. Breaks down. He's been holding these feelings, this grief inside him all this time, and now that he is not only told it's okay to let it out, but by her very own parents at that, he just can't keep it in anymore. He cries for Moenbryda, right then and there, being held lovingly by her family.

And the thing is, these scenes aren't necessary, strictly speaking. The plot at large could go on without them, the events that happen around them are not changed by these moments in any way.

But still, they are so so important, to the world, to the characters, to the players. Everything feels real and impactful now, every death means something, every tragedy, every person, feels real.

And that, to me, is what makes this story so special.

[deathflare]

pt 2 of twitter requests

[anneapocalypse]

The more I think about Urianger and Moenbryda and the more I dig into what little we have of their history in canon the more insane I feel about them. They have been friends since childhood and I cannot get over how messy that relationship must have been over the years. She was his only childhood friend. He deeply admires her work in aetherology. He told her an axe was unbecoming of a scholar. They were both disciples of Louisoix. Their mentor left for Eorzea with one of them and not the other and never even bothered to tell Moenbryda why, leaving her to deal with the vicious rumors about her former mentor alone. Urianger hated to see her hurt, but was so devoted to Louisoix that he went along with this and agreed that sure, Moenbryda needed to "find her own path" aka intuit why her mentor abandoned her and what he wanted her to learn from that by... magic, I guess. She flirts with him openly. He calls her immature. He panics when she hugs him in public. He calls her "my dearest" but only after she's dead. He lets her sacrifice herself, says she "fulfilled her destiny" and then lets the guilt over that choice spiral him deeper and deeper into a lonely and isolated hell of his own making. I love them and they make me want to chew the curtains.

[tritoch]

reading lore for something else and was reminded of the facts that:

bozjan seers who had the echo used its power to alter people's memories as a form of therapy using crystal foci

employing their technique and one such focus is how you enter cid's memories to view the gunnhildr's blade relics

using the focus with the warrior of light's echo enables someone else with the echo to see your echo vision

also the storyline implies you can possibly intentionally trigger your echo when using the focus

ancient bozjans used crystals extensively for archiving memories for many purposes, including passing down martial techniques (which are the fragments you use to acquire bozja-specific actions like seraph strike or flare star)

most of the relic storyline involves finding other memory crystals (which appear to implicitly draw into themselves the memories of those who die near them, or are manifested on death) or revisiting memories of your past exploits and placing them into these crystals, and gerolt then using their aether (which we know is a major component of memory) to reinforce the relic

later stages involve you drawing out raw emotion into crystals using a similar process. these crystals are said to be very different, contain raw emotion or something akin to the power of prayer, and are either again created by you in pitched battle or are said to manifest from the strong emotions of warriors in conflict in zadnor. these crystals also require a different process and reagent to properly bind the emotion to the weapon.

knowing what we know now, those crystals are definitely full of dynamis and that whole part of the relic chain can be interpreted as gerolt working out a way to infuse dynamis into a weapon.

also the weapon save the queen itself (which i still want a replica of for glam) can hold the most aether and dynamis to empower it because it's made from auracite, much like the heart of sabik

also this is unrelated to anything but mikoto namedrops moenbryda which always floors me. i love that she knows all the archon scions (she's literally a student of baldesion) and they've never once mentioned her. she's so "theoretically lore-important character only appearing in this anime movie and never in the series"-coded.

this is all perfectly straightforward in the relic quests but i have to be honest i don't pay attention when mikoto or gerolt are talking and the way bozja was delivered didn't really work for me. writing it all out in plain text like this makes the lore feel absolutely wild

[uriangey]

I think Urianger appreciates a good hug every so often, even when it seems like he doesn't want one 🥰

[scionshtola]

something i thought was weird in dt was everyone acting like they had never before heard of the concept of remembering someone after they died

[sexybritishllama]

this is such a good line this whole conversation was such a good character moment for urianger

[wind-up-thancred]

actually afterthat last RB i would in fact like to elaborate briefly on my aroace urianger headcanon. to me uri is like an ancient wise forest spirit whose true form is some fucked up deer thing but he chooses to take on the form of a guy. but bc he has like no real understanding of gender (being a forest spirit and all) his gender presentation is just like. everything at once and also nothing. hes not ACTUALLY that in my headcanon he just has those exact vibes. yknow. therefore as an ancient forest spirit thing he also makes no distinction between the different "types" of love and he just loves all his friends and everyone around him the same. doesnt see any difference between platonic and romantic he just knows when he wants to spend the rest of his life with someone. that sort of thing it also explains why he likes the stars and little rabbit critters. he is like BOTW's lord of the mountain. to me.

[isayoldbean]

i am attacking hien like a wild animal i hate that man so much

[minarcana]

{1 with Moen as the kisser and Uri maybe?}

LEMME DRAW KISSIES // accepting now till dec 31

hey now. thats his weak spot!!!!!

[neriyon]

Hey look, an idea I stole from @zylphiacrowley (chain of idea stealing haha), feat. very startled Hawu'li. More details for each relationship under the cut for anyone curious.

Tataru: She and Hawu'li are very close friends, all the way from the first days he spent with scions. They like to hang out, talk (mostly gossip) about stuff over tea, and while other scions take to Tataur's big moneymaking plans with a healthy dose of caution, Hawu'li is always ready to go do anything she asks. She's also the one Hawu'li usually goes to when he needs some advice or just someone to listen to his woes.

Y'shtola: I've mentioned this before but she reminds Hawu'li of his older sisters. They used to be on purely professional terms up till ShB, and have since made steady progess to become friends. The two of them can usually be found reading books in a same room or chatting about Y'shtola's research (Hawu'li is always curious to learn more).

Lyse: I actually first marked her as a friend, but then remembered Hawu'li is a Gridania starter so uh, family it is. Lyse has kinda decided to take the role of a caring big sister/mother figure by herself - despite being only 2 years older. These two lively idiots (affectionate) do get along well, and occasionally send letters now that Lyse is busy with Ala Mhigo stuff.

Estinien: "Boyfriend of my boyfriend" haha. They both date Aymeric, so they are part of the polycule together, despite not having too much romantic feelings towards eachother. They do trust and appreciate eachother a lot, and are in some sort of friends with benefits status. Hawu'li's can be a bit much for Estinien at times, but it's pretty common to see them sharing some casual contact which Estinien seems to like after spending time alone. They also share the single idiotic braincell over money related things (do not let them to the market without supervision!)

Thancred: Kinda between close friends and regular friends tbh. I feel like Thancred would get annoyed by Hawu'li's energy levels, but he'd also be smart enough to just dump the catboy on someone else when in need of some peace and quiet. Hawu'li finds him pretty nice and trusts him a lot, but does not really appreciate that Thancred prefers to keep him in the dark about most things - meanwhile Thancred feels he's a good kid but a bit too young and airheaded to be trusted with everything.

Ryne: Cat sees teenager, cat adopts teenager. While not as close as with twins, Hawu'li happily treats Ryne as part of the family and takes care to check in on her regularily after ShB. He often brings her gifts and books, staying over for some coffee and biscuits to talk about how scions are doing. Ryne tends to come to Hawu'li about any relationship troubles, and when she and Gaia start going out he's the first one to hear about it (and congratulate them, haha)

Minfilia: This is an intersting one, since Hawu'li usually befriends everyone quickly (if they want to be befriended). But somehow Minfilia's position as the leader of Scions made Hawu'li kinda hesitant to bother her too much, so kinda like with Y'shtola, their relationship stayed pretty professional. In hindsight, Hawu'li definitely regrets he didn't get to know her more.

G'raha: Boyfriends! As close as can be, spending lot of time together. Reading, talking about anything interesting they've learned, visiting new places, going on dates… pretty much anything. G'raha has great tolerance for Hawu'li's clingyness and doesn't mind some pda, so Hawu'li tends to stick to him a lot. Also just cat things: they will often knock their heads together and even start playfighting every now and then.

Alphinaud: Little brother! While more snobbish during ARR, Hawu'li does see some of himself in the boy, and does his best to keep him safe and help him however he can. Likes to gently tease Alphi (usually with Alisaie), but will be uncharacteristically ready to throw down with anything threatening his lil bro (he may or may not have growled at Fourchenault when he was talking about disowning twins).

Alisaie: Little sister and partner-in-mischief! Like with Alphi, they are very close and protective of eachother, with the exception that Alisaie seems as ready to fight to protect Hawu'li as he does to protect twins. They often tease Alphi together, or go channel their excess energy in some friendly sparring. Or run off to see who can climb some trees faster.

Urianger: Hawu'li likes him a lot, but unfortunately can only understand him like 30% of the time. However he's just happy to sit there listening anyway, and usually Thancred or Y'shtola know to check if he actually got the important parts. They like eachother's company, and somehow just hanging out with Urianger seems to calm Hawu'li down a lot, which has been a godsent to everyone.

Krile: Still a pretty new friend, but one that Hawu'li is eager to get to know more. He is however tiiiiiny bit nervous about it, since Krile and G'raha are clearly close, and he really really really wants to get well along with his boyfriend's close friend. Krile thinks he's a nice lad, and hopes he'd relax a bit and drop the random bouts of overly polite behaviour.

[haunted-xander]

During the last All Saint's Wake I recorded dancing while magicked into everyone with the intent of making gifs of it, which I then promptly forgot about and now I can't be bothered to gif them so here's just a compilation.

This one's all ARR :)

[charulein]

Honestly my main grievance with ffxiv is how the female characters are treated lmao

[galianbeast]

let's clasp our hands together, log in to ffxiv, and send a feedback message telling them to change the descriptions of the khloe minion today hmm? :)

[iggyfing]

man... dffoo shutting down at the end of february.....