#post-heavensward spoilers

[varethane]

Regarding Thancred's eyepatch in the post-Heavensward patches, here's my personal theory....

XIVbsky | swag

[shiratamako]

Hi!!! 👋 I was hoping that you could write a snippet from Aymeric’s POV about your girl! 🥰

Flesh and Blood

882 Words, Pining and Heavy Angst Set after As Goes Light, So Goes Darkness Heavensward Patch 3.1

The Warrior of Light had been unnaturally quiet after rescuing the hostages from the basilica. The scream of a child being thrown from the height of the spires still rang in Aymeric’s ears, even if Vidofnir rescued the blameless girl. Dressed in blackest coat, she was always close to him, trying her best to keep up with his pace. She gave her benediction to restore his vitality, yet she could still not offer a smile or cheer on the events that should be cause for celebration.

When Count Edmont said that he saw much of Haurchefant in him, that was when he heard the White Mage give a strangled gasp, her mouth twisted in silent anguish. Her eyes glistened as she stymied her grief, her eyes narrowing to prevent the flow of tears. The staff in her hand trembled as she struggled to hold it.

Without warning, she took off, leaving the Scions and the crowd unceremoniously as she hurried down the steps. He looked to Lucia and gave a nod. He would see to her safety himself, descending the stairs swiftly after her.

“Shira!” he called out her name instinctively as she headed in the direction of the cathedral. Aymeric caught up to her. He approached her, trying to make his presence small rather than to seem as though he was hunting her down. Her gaze was downcast as she refused to look at him.

He wished to reach a hand out to her. He wished he was closer.

He wished he was Haurchefant.

As Aymeric, he felt like he could do nothing. He was utterly powerless before her unalloyed pain.

Aymeric made his voice exceedingly soft, speaking through his throat in barely above a murmur. All consonants lost their harshness, fading into sumptuous whispers with a faint, warm rasp like a crackle in a hearth.

“Was it Lord Edmont’s words? I know you grieve still,”

She shook her head fervently, denying it. He knew there was no cause to deny it. He knew Shira would have been truthful — after all, Haurchefant came to him one night, announcing of his happy decision. The Silver Fuller spoke of the promise that he would be engaged to Shira. He wanted to protect her smile, to cherish all their happy days together.

For that, Haurchefant needed a ring and a suitable goldsmith to create an oath given form. That was why he went to Aymeric for assistance in recommending the finest artisan in all of Ishgard. Even though Haurchefant was unable to fulfil his promise to her, Shira still wore the ring on her left ring finger.

Aymeric spoke again, as sensitively as he could. “Please, Shira. I want to know what troubles you so,”

Her voice was small and faint, choked out by her tears. “I saw a vision. An echo…”

She finally raised her eyes to meet his; her soft oceanic blues. The shadow of the cathedral created an annular glow around her irises.

“I— I could not save you in time, when you fight still wounded,” She spoked her hushed, diffused oracle of the ill portent she saw, afraid and breathless. “You fell, even when I fought my hardest to protect you. I could not bear… to see you fall.”

The tears fell down her cheeks, and his heart split in twain at her sincerity, her compassion for him. He offered Shira a grateful smile. Few reminded him of his mortality, that he too, was a man that was flesh and blood. Even in the past few days he carried on despite his wounds, as though he could not fall for his duty to witness a new era.

“Rest assured I am safe, in no small part thanks to you.”

He tenderly wiped a tear away with his thumb. He soon realised the gravity of his mistake when her eyes widened in terror, her breath seizing up at his touch as she drew away from him. He rescinded his hand immediately with regret at what he had done.

“Forgive my presumptuousness, I… only wished to dry your tears,”

He cursed his momentary lapse in judgment, though he refrained from showing it on his face. He felt himself so callow to think himself as a fairy tale knight. She was not a child in need of succor; he could not simply just wipe away her every tear with kind words.

Shira quelled her own disquiet, her breaths shaky as she wiped tears from her cheeks. She looked to Aymeric, though she could never meet his gaze.

“I understand, Ser Aymeric. Thank you regardless,” Hiding her own torment, her weak voice was stiff and invariant in tone. “Please excuse me. I think Lord Artoirel will be expecting me at Fortemps Manor.”

She bowed to him, overtly distant and formal in her parting. She walked over the bridge to the Last Vigil with hurried steps. As her form grew smaller on the horizon, Aymeric was left alone in the cold shadow of the cathedral.

“Fury, strike me down,” Aymeric rasped in his solitude. He curled his hand to his chest as he offered both a prayer and confession. For he too, was a man of flesh and blood and no better than any other.

“If I cannot give her peace, grant her your mercy.”

[kraefishh]

3.4 REALLY DID THAT, HUH???

heavensward spoilers under the cut for those who follow me that havent finished it. as well as me dumping about my wols

FIRST OF ALL I TOOK SO MANY SCREENSHOTS. LIKE MAYBE TOO MANY SCREENSHOTS BUT THATS BESIDES THE POINT.

<- ME, SCREENSHOT HAPPY.

Starting off with Aymeric.... I love him. I love him very dearly. I love how the story acknowledges that the wol is apprehensive about accepting drinks from people even if they know it will probably be fine. ALSO EVERYTHING ABOUT TAHT CONVERSATION.... it hit. it did. i love Aymeric.

AND THEN-- I really met Alisaie when doing coils and then met her 30 minutes after finishing it because i did coils back to back with 3.4 and HRHJGMMHHFHM. like I liked her but she really did just skyrocket into my top 5 characters within a few set of quests. AND HOUUAUGUHGHG MAN.

the stuff with Ga Bu..... the poor baby. AND THE STARGAZING SEQUENCE. SOLIDIFIED ALISAIE TOP 5.

ARDBERT IS HIS OWN CAN OF WORMS. HE IS ONE OF THE CHARACTERS EVER. TRULY. PUNCHED ME RIGHT IN THE GUT. ME AND MY WOL BOTH. "we never aspired to be Warriors of Light." THAT WAS A SUCKER PUNCH TO THE FACE. THATS MY WHOLE SHIT. THATS MY WHOLE THING WITH MY WOLS. "We fought and we fought and we fought... until there was no one left to fight. We won ...and now our world is being erased from existence."

^ Quite literally my whole point about what my wols struggle with. They give EVERYTHING to the fight. to the cause. and in the end, it never is enough. It never was enough, for Alidae. she gave up at the end of ARR cause she lost hope that she could do enough. T'lyr was forced to take a break, lest he resign himself to burnout and destruction of self. Sthallona never returned to the fight after the Calamity. she no longer wanted to have to prove herself to the world that she was enough.

and here it is. in the fucking game. in personified form. rar you warned me and i really didn't understand. I Understand Now.

oh also dont get me started on Urianger. I've already resigned that I have to put him on my top ffxiv character list. I was losing my goddamn mind the entire time about his double crossing scheme.

OH SPEAKING OF URIANGER. AND JUST IN GENERAL. THE VOICE ACTING???? THE VOICE ACTING??? tHE VOICE ACTING!!!! The voice acting in this patch was phenominal. I was worried I wasn't going to like Urianger's voice after swearing by Gideon Emery AND THEN WAS PROVEN WRONG WITHIN SECONDS. Ardbert, again, is his own can of worms. Joe Dempsie really put his all into this role and I could not thank him enough. I quite literally almost cried and news flash: I don't cry at things. Very easily.

EEEEHAHAHAHA THEN WE GET TO THE WORD OF THE MOTHER MINFILIA. THAT ENTIRE SEQUENCE RIPPED WHAT LITTLE LEFT OF MY EMOTIONAL STABILITY TO SHREDS. "Minfilia don't you dare I don't have the emotional capacity tonight," I say to my sibling, right as she appears, having not even experienced the cutscene yet. I was right. I did not have the emotional capacity. (Side note: neither did Alidae! guarantee she was holding back tears the entire time.)

Thancred was on the verge of tears too I don't care what you say. That is his sister that he is saying goodbye to for (to his knowledge) probably the last time.

OH F'LHAMINN'S REACTION HURT A BIT MORE THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD. THATS HER DAUGHTER.

Oh I'm SO MAD that Y'shtola and Krile and Lyse (yes I know about Yda being Lyse such is the curse of being on the internet) and Papalymo weren't there to say goodbye too. like I understand that would have been a lot of voice acting and a lot of models to fit on screen, BUT THEY DESERVED THAT :(((

and I finished the 'An Ending to Mark a New Beginning' quest already in shambles. but I knew there was going to be some kind of teaser cutscene to wrap up the patch. I was Wholly expecting something pertaining to Papalymo or Yda in set up for Stormblood. and well lets just say I was Wrong.

Something you should know about me, I got abnormally attached to two characters. Those who know me personally, it should not be a surprise as to why I got attached to them. And for those who don't its anybody's fucking guess. Those two characters being Cid and Nero respectively.

SO THE TEASER CUTSCENE BEING NONE OTHER THAN MOTHERFUCKING NERO DISCOVERING OMEGA. SENT ME INTO HYSTERICS. HI I AM NOT SORRY FOR WHO I WILL BECOME WHEN I REACH THE OMEGA RAIDS. I WAS IN THE CORNER OF MY ROOM CONTEMPLATING FOR A SOLID THREE MINUTES BEFORE REGAINING MY COMPOSURE AND GOING BACK TO MY COMPUTER.\

anyway thank you for your time. TL;DR I am not normal about Ardbert, Alisaie, and Nero. I don't think I will emotionally recover from this patch for a solid week and I am so sorry for those close to me that will have to hear about it (and to those who already have)

I have to work later tonight. I have not slept. <- this was posted at 6am.

[juweldom]

Ch. 34: Revelations and Resolutions

The Heart of the Song - Chapter 34 - Juwelz - Final Fantasy XIV [Archive of Our Own]

Summary:

A transition chapter, but we're getting closer to the good stuff. Two attempts at a peace conference, one Grand Melee, and an Estiinien in a Nidhogg suit.

(Post-Heavensward 3.2 spoilers from "The Word of the Mother" through "Causes and Costs" with also some content from the Warring Triad questline)

[rowanoftheholybody]

As stated before Rowan is not from Eorzea. Neither is Akari for that matter. They both hale from a community founded by adventurers. One that is pretty divorced from what is seen as traditional.

I mention this as Rowan knew both his parents and both were active in his life. However, due to certain events, some of which Rowan even now is not privy to, his blood father tended to be absent. Playing a part in the rather complicated feelings he has about the man.

It also has effected his outlook and his relationship to others.

He really did not want to leave Papalymo alone.

[janzoo]

Do you ever just find yourself overcome with a lot of Feelings about a character that fandom often uses as a punching bag?

So anyway, Emmanellain de Fortemps.

I think about him a lot more than I let on around here. Yes he's a bit of a ponce and a dandy and the like, but he has a good heart. He saved Honoroit from indentured servitude. (Although I thought they originally met when he paid Honoroit to carry his bags then took him in from there? Did the lore change?) Either way, he personally taught Honoroit to read and write. He personally taught Honoroit to read and write. I'm not over that. Emmanellain didn't have to go out of his way to invest personal time and resources into teaching Honoroit, but he did. I'm not over that!! I refuse to believe that doing so came from anywhere else but a place of sincere compassion!

And speaking of sincerity, I feel like that's the source of some of his issues. Having grown up in a broken home and being the apology child and clearly having some anxiety issues, I think he struggles to be sincere. He has to be the good second son, and the goofball who diffuses negative situations, and an Ishgardian noble which no doubt comes with its own entire category of repression. All his running away from responsibilities and passing the buck and etc. etc. strikes me as someone with severe anxiety that manifests in avoidance habits which just hits way too close to home for me. But. But! He's learning how to face his anxiety! Don't you remember how inspired he was after the grand melee??!! "We need only show them the way." He wants to help people and guide Ishgard into that bright future he's finally able to glimpse himself!! He's trying to be sincere! He's trying to be true to that good heart of his! His love and curiosity for the world around him is growing, and helping him grow in turn! Emmanellain will probably always be a ponce, but he'll also always be generous and fun-loving and considerate!

EMMANELLAIN DE FORTEMPS

[picaroroboto]

one of my favorite WoL Moments is still this dialogue choice in Heavensward:

Context is that during the HW roadtrip, the party gets caught in this Catch-22 where the dragons won't let us pass through unless we get the Gnath to stop bugging (lol) them, but the Gnath have summoned Ravana. It seems obvious that the WoL needs to kill Ravana in order for anything to progress, but Alphinaud asks to make sure they're willing first.

There's a lot you can dig up in this seemingly simple interaction - first, Alphinaud's side of things: during late-ARR and it's post-patches, there's a lot of evidence to be found that shows he treats the WoL like a bodyguard, like a weapon, taking their strength for granted for his political ends while giving little, if any, thought to their own thoughts and feelings. It's not outright malicious manipulation, just a sort of blindness. Since the betrayal at the banquet he's been humbled, and grown closer to the WoL thanks to their continued support of him despite the fact that his vanity caused the disaster. Him asking the WoL is they're okay with fighting Ravana, even though it's a given that they have to, can be seen as him not wanting to repeat the same pattern of using them.

For the WoL, the "choice" seems obvious - kill the Primal. Their first Primal battle, Ifrit, was a fight for survival brought on by a twist of fate. Every one since then has been an active pursuit by choice - if you can even call it a choice when they're the only one who can do it and many people would die if they didn't. By HW they're already firmly locked in to their role of being the guy who kills Primals, and whether they like it or not they continue to choose to fight. By choosing the upper line here they confirm that, while also giving some cool and heroic bravado to reassure Alphinaud. But notably it's just to say that they don't fear their duty. They may hate it, regret the choices that lead them here, all manner of things, but they are not afraid of fighting Primals.

Or they could simply say nothing. Giving silence also recognizes that their choice doesn't really matter and they're going to have to fight anyways. When it comes to silent protagonist-type characters who have few dialogue options, every option they're given has all the more weight. There are cases where choosing to say three ellipses "..." says a thousand things more than not being given a dialogue choice at all, and this is one of them. It's as if the two choices here are actually "Be the Hero" or "Be the Hero (not happy about it)".

[tritoch]

in retrospect the whole estinien/gaius teamup is one of the funniest and most classically fanservice-y things FFXIV has done so far

your DARTH VADER/GRAHF-CODED ORIGINAL MAIN VILLAIN and YOUR RIVAL TURNED TEAMMATE TURNED POSSESSED ENEMY TURNED COMRADE-IN-ARMS, two of the only warriors alive who are even sort of your equal on the battlefield, MEET UP ON A TOP-SECRET MISSION, where they face off in a TWO VERSUS ONE FIGHT with MULTIPLE CAMERA ANGLES AND NON-STOCK ANIMATION against YOUR LATEST RIVAL, RETURNED FROM THE DEAD TO HUNT YOU ONCE MORE. there are SICK TEAMUP MOVES.

and then they fight a giant top-secret prototype bio-organic mech.

this is like the non-canon anime OVA with needlessly nice animation to our mainline shonen storyline, except it's 100% in-story. it's also not not the opening to ff7. i have never been more catered to in this game, and they let you straight up just fight phantom train at one point. no one ever mentions it again later.

[nekhcore]

so. about that patch 3.4,

[frankenhoez]

"There will be more warriors of light after me, but only one Haurchefant."

Alternative vault cutscene aka i got an idea and I had to make it everyone else's problem

[c♡mmissions open here and here]

[alackofghosts]

wolbert week day 5 - loss

how i wish we could have been friends

[sirenunderthemountain]

confiteor

[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.

[wataridori-art]

Post-Heavensward Ardbert happened...

In response to this

Something about the poetic irony of trying to kill someone in order to save your world, only to find out that the way to save your world is to one day save his life

Something about the poetic irony of the man who once took away your ability to walk, being the one who would one day give you the strength to take another step

[faragonart]

"Alas... I can no longer walk this path with you... so promise me this. Tell me you will live your life, make friends anew, share your heart with someone special...

...for this is only the beginning of your long, long road..."

[rogueonions]

Thancred versus Cyclops

Dear gods this took me... a long time. Between distractions, blocks, and fiddly issues with coloring outside the lines.