#playing ARR

[tearlunars]

the crystal bearer.

[thefandomexpert]

ok. i see u complaining about how long it takes to get to shb, how are you supposed to get your friends into the fucking WONDER that is shb when they have to get through all of The Other Stuff First

I used to have this problem with Homestuck, people who wanted to skip to the trolls, or pass on the intermissions. I will repeat what I said then now:

The later stuff is mind-blowingly good BECAUSE of the setup slog. which is also fun btw, you’re having trouble selling it because you keep saying it’s a slog. it’s good storytelling! yes even arr and sb (i didn’t say it was the best storytelling!! but i’ve seen way fuckin worse!!!). You need to spend 300 hours with the characters and to watch them grow gradually for a LOT of the little character moments to even register later on, and i’m not even talking about the ascian reveals. estinien is a completely different character. thancred’s deep-seated issues have been brewing subtly since 1.0. the socio-economic political climate of the universe is SO important and SO well set up by the arr random task/fetch quests (BABY INCONSEQUENTIAL QUESTS. YEAH THE STUPID ONES IN THE INTRO PRE-SASTASHA SEQUENCES WITH THE NPCS YOU DONT REMEMBER. THOSE.) and that info is integral to character decisions made in every expansion afterwords, and is built upon consistently. the consistent build-up of the lore is, in my opinion, almost entirely the reason ffxiv’s writing stands out against other games of the genre. and it’s BOLSTERED by the fact that it’s a live service game with a shit ton of expansions you HAVE to play through single file when you start fresh. narrative games are usually 15-20 hours. ffxiv is giving you 500+ in msq alone (won’t get into how much the optional and side quests support the storytelling as well).

It’s like one of those long-running book series. you can’t ask someone to read Just the last book of animorphs and expect them to understand the narrative implications of what’s happening, or to get attached to the characters enough to care. that attachment and understanding is built by spending time and reading the other 1500 books prior. shb should not be treated as a stand-alone. in fact it’d be a bad standalone. it’s good BECAUSE there’s 500+ hours of playtime required to get there.

[nekhcore]

i think it's actually really fucked up that after everything, when minfilia confides in you about how she's still grieving and isn't ready to attend a big event and calls you her pillar of strength, you don't get to just... give her a hug and hold her tight

[fisherrprince]

OUTTA THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lavampira]

my homeland is in your eyes, my duty on your lips. ask anything of me, except to leave you.

[sexybritishllama]

for all the many many times i have run praetorium i always kind of forget that nero is one of the bosses. like what do you mean nero is this big hammer guy trying to kill me. i thought he was my gay divorced engineer uncle

[gposers]

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WEEKLY FEATURE WINNER!!!

Name: Cyrille de Archambeau Bluesky Caption: The High Priest

[scorn-of-the-scions]

and woe the warrior of darkness roams free

[yildraws]

3 days left to Dawntrail (early access) !!!

(friends and I decided to do a countdown together hehe ☺ check them out! → Day 6 / Day 5 / Day 4 / Day 3 / Day 2 / Day 1 )

[rasenkaikyo]

Yoichi Bow you are still the relic ever.

[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.

[dragonsongmakhali]

<YO! SAY! SUMMER 💗 LOVE!>

Prompt: A2

you can't even tell she has heart-shaped sunglasses on :( I guess that just means I'll have to make more summer time poses ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[kraefishh]

fucked up AU idea where instead of Minfilia falling into the lifestream to give her life source up to Hydaelyn, the WoL does it instead?? Like the WoL sacrifices themself for her in spite of Minfilia protesting. Or maybe they were called instead of her.

But then the rest of the story is Minfilia being forced to step up in the Wol's place because she's the only other one who has an Echo power that rivals the WoL's (perhaps its even stronger!).

Think of the potential that this would bring. The scions' devastation over losing this shard's last Warrior of Light before Minfilia picks up the helm and through sheer willpower takes the WoL's place. The WoL becoming the 'Word of the Mother' and the utter agony that that would bring. RYNE INSTEAD BEING A MIRROR OF THE WOL INSTEAD OF MINFILIA..... GOD. Like if you put your WoL in that place instead of default Meteor Survivor (love him to death) you could make some damn cool designs and not to mention pain with that.

Anyway this is getting a little away from me but I've been pondering this for like a solid few hours.

[nekhcore]

whose face was it that i saw on that day...?

[lavampira]

do you picture me like I picture you? am I in the frame from your point of view?

[sunbeasts]

I found a screenshot I took when I was so proud of getting everything to cap all the way back in heavensward. HOW OLD IS THIS A true relic from the past right here.