#more spoiler stuff later

[msviolacea]

Okay, MSQ is finished. Some mostly non-spoilery thoughts.

I stand by everything I said in this morning's post. If the experience of your avatar being the center of the story is why you play, then this is probably not going to be the expansion for you. We, the player and the WoL, are there to witness events and lend our strength, and to discover new things about the world. We're not there to be the main character. This isn't the high highs and deep lore dives that the previous two expansions were.

But above all else, for me, Dawntrail was just fun.

I liked the characters, I liked the setting, I liked the implications for future lore, I liked the fights, I liked the designs. I had some issues with the pacing, and there were a few brief moments that made me cringe a little - but don't put too much stock in that, I get secondhand embarrassment from Hildebrand, so take my cringe meter for whatever it's worth.

I think Wuk Lamat was a good main character for this expansion - for the genre of story that FFXIV tells, the start of a story needs a wide-eyed "innocent" to go through the start of the story. We haven't been that person since ARR. We got to witness it through Alphinaud in HW, Lyse in StB. We could kind of be that person again in ShB, but we also had Ryne to fill that role. In Endwalker, we were wrapping up the larger story, so the discovery character wasn't really needed - but we also got to play that role briefly in Elpis.

I'm honestly glad they didn't go with having us be the wide-eyed newbie to the new continent as the center of the story. That would have felt culturally ... insensitive, at best.

I have my issues with parts of the story. I don't think the ending was as strong as it could have been - I think the emotional heart of the story had its climax right before the final dungeon when [redacted], the dungeon and final trial were more formalities than anything. It wasn't perfect, but it was good. And fun. And made the game feel fun for me again. And that's what I wanted out of it.

So yes. Dawntrail, a solid ... 7 out of 10, I think. I'd probably set it square in the middle for my enjoyment of the game, somewhere above Stormblood and ARR, but below Shadowbringers and Endwalker. (And probably Heavensward, but I have thoughts about how much that expansion holds up for me in hindsight, about how the good parts were exquisite but the meh parts were extra meh, but that's a story for a whole different day. In the end, I think it takes #3 on my list, with Dawntrail a close 4th.)

I hope everyone else has been enjoying themselves, one way or another. I'm off to cast some paint magic and see how it goes.

[egophiliac]

we were fucking ROBBED

[arcanegifs]

Here's more comparisons of Arcane Gifs before and after I color and sharpen em!

[seefasterdraws]

from the homumiko mines

[dexter-erotoph]

ITS THE SAME THING. ITS THE SAME THING

[venomgaia]

if you know, you know

[neunhofferart]

fave scene u boarded this season?

Okay, MAJOR SPOILERS for Jurassic World Chaos Theory Season 2 incoming haha. It's hard to pick just one, so here's a bunch:

Favorite scenes that made it to screen:

The sucho vs. hippo fight (Though sadly I didn't request this one for my demo real because most of the boards are not very pretty/had to be cleaned up by someone else due to time. These panels below are some of the few that look nice enough to show LOL. Originally in the script, there were TWO hippos we called Orson and Welles, but it was just too much going on in that little set, so the whole thing had to be reworked from scratch halfway through the boarding period. My director Mike Mullen and our revisionist Emma Gilles contributed a LOT to this sequence and made my hastily redone roughs actually legible for everyone, and added/refined more after I had to move on in the schedule)

Ben freaking out while everyone piles more and more problems on Yaz

Kenji fixing his dislocated arm while Darius gagged

Santos sending Red to kill Captain Lang (I have permission to share this one in full, but I need to format it because it's in pdf form).

Favorite scenes that were cut or significantly trimmed down:

Extended scene of Brooklynn feeding Gordon that introduced more of an idea of her having lingering PTSD around dinosaurs, while also highlighting more of the connection between her and Gordon sharing a limb difference. It was a more contemplative scene, but the episode hit 30 or 35 minutes in the initial cut and it could only be 22, so a LOT was cut in the Brooklynn episode (I also have permission to share all of this one, but again need to format it first)

Extended Kenji/Brooklynn break up scene- The first half is still there, which leads into what Rianna originally boarded in 104. A stupid detail I'm proud of- when Kenji leads Brooklynn up the mountain by hand, it's the last time anyone ever holds that hand (in that way). HOWEVER- there was originally a bit more past what Rianna did in 104 that showed how their dynamic/what they both wanted out of their relationship wasn't really in sync. Brooklynn tries to defend her actions to Kenji, but Kenji feels that her work has grown important to her than he is, and Brooklynn actually winds up being the person to say 'Fine, then let's break up!' Which I doubt she mentioned to Darius haha. Anyway, this was again cut because the episode was too dang long.

[wojtekaneko]

Get bonked silly librarian man

[chiricat]

wip dump since i’ve hit artblock for the first time in a while…

1. neon genesis evangelion x persona protags

2. persona kizunas (from prsk)

3. rise & airi swap places (with yu & shizuku supporting)

4. airiena sanrio collab

[alena-draws]

Little snippet from a vashwood reincarnation comic that I do not have nearly fully fleshed out in my head with written down text that would surely be 50+ pages and which I will probably get to draw never aaaah

[linkedin-offficial]

frankly, im obsessed with him

[raviposting]

COURTNEY MILLER & AMANDA LEHAN-CANTO in SUBMISSIVE & BREEDABLE

[sleepsucks]

[saltybiowarefantears]

i think i hauve covid

[pineappical]

in light of tedtrent becoming so real, im also jumping on the tedtrent epilogue 😊

there's just no way ted wouldn't keep in touch with the others (and have weekly zoom meetings just like in the christmas special) and I just love the thought of the whole team having reunions once in a while.

and going back to trent's arc in s3, the sunflowers conversation, "And your daughter?" "She's never been happier." I think it could go the same for ted.. we've never really properly saw how henry felt about his dad being in london, it's always other people that told ted his son misses him, who's to say henry would rather see his dad happy because that in turn would make him happy too? he was there to win the whole thing, right? I just know ted’s story isn’t done yet when he still hasn’t learned to let others take care of him in return and who else to pair him with than the man who blew up his career because a man was nice to him (and also because they were so. so cruel for the fakeout tedbecca scenes for that finale) 🥺

I'm no writer so just pretend these are snapshots of a slow burn fic where ted visits london for their team reunion and slowly realizes that trent has a crush on him and they kiss about it 💛

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

things we learn about mulder in s1

he wanted to be an astronaut when he was young, and stayed up all night when he was 14 to watch his hero do a walk in space

he's scared to death of fire because his friend's house burned down when he was a kid

he went to oxford 10 years before the start of s1, where he dated phoebe and they, at the very least, made out on arthur conan doyle's grave (but it's implied they went all the way)

he is a fan of like. all of the sports. i cannot keep up with them all, but he sure can

he had his first case at the age of 28, where an agent died because he wouldn't take a risky shot

(and he remembers everything about the man who died- his kids, their ages, what they do for fun- all of it haunts him)

((he also, at the trial for the man who killed the agent, screamed that he "should die like an animal, you son of a bitch"- so much for cool and composed spooky mulder))

he always falls asleep on his couch to the point where i don't even know if this man has a bed

before being moved to the x-files, he worked for 3 years at the behavioral science unit, where he profiled serial killers

(also literally no one wants him on the x files they just keep him around because he is too dangerous to fire lmao)

he will go out of his way to make any kids involved a case he's assigned to feel comfortable and/or laugh as a break from the Heavy Moments (probably because he remembers being questioned while very young and how awful it felt)

he believes that siblings have a psychic connection (heartbreaking when you remember his sister disappeared when he was 12 and he only has access to the memories due to hypnosis)

he refused to let his parents call him by his first name and only went by "mulder", even as a child