#shadowbrings

[blondebnuuy]

They're actively talking about the WoL as they're dancing.

[gilded-grimoire]

Promises 🌸

[jqupohtia]

The real reason he did his leap from above to introduce himself: had to make himself taller so we wouldn’t miss him.

crystal exarch: g'raha tia wasnt in the tower when i got there

wol: did you look? did you look under things? he's a bit of a manlet. more of a scale miniature of a person, really. did you look down ever at all? he could've been standing right in front of you and you just missed him

crystal exarch: *choking back tears* there was no such person

[gladiogotdatbootio]

the Eulmoran Adjutant is so fucking stupid

[feralkwe]

i haven't seen this so i assumed i had to do it myself

[yhane]

G’raha Tia

[punklilyyy]

in a crystal exarch mood lately

[thetinyscald-blog]

Countless memories and moments I took for granted...

Gods, you grew up so fast.

[trashasaurusrex]

"I challenge you, Emet-Selch."

[oograths-pizza-and-chill]

some worthwhile replies

[beneaththeplanetofthebatmans]

Shadowbringers is a time

[chysgoda]

*chucks two cents in the fountain*

now with minor Endwalker spoilers and rampant hot takes from a red head!

I do think it’s a fair interpretation to say that Emet Selch was emotionally and mentally against the ropes. As far as The Plan(tm) went, yea they were absolutely ahead and just needed to sit back and chill a bit. However, there are indications that for Emet the cognitive dissonance needed to keep thinking of the sundered as lesser was starting to break down. After all, one of the go to plays in their book took advantage of the same virtues that he extolled the ancients as having a monopoly on. Between the short stories “Through His Eyes” and  “A Question of Death” as well as some of the commentary in Endwalker’s Garlemald zone it seems that there was starting to be a difference in how Emet was viewing things. And when his eldest son dies he goes back to leaning hard into mortals are trash. Possibly going further than strictly necessary to make sure that Varis and Zenos were as mucked up as possible to prove that to himself. (see the mysterious whatever he did to Zenos that Fandaniel mentions in the post 5.0 stuff)

The Unsundered were a time bomb of arrogance and trauma and I think they knew that on some level. Once Lahabrea is gone, Emet and Elidibus are suddenly hit by the fact that the plan is good but they as people are running out of time. So why not rush the process a bit? The process is good and surely they can just make some minor adjustments for bumps in the road. Except they can’t. They push to hard, and while the plan may have been able to survive, they couldn’t. Emet doesn’t take these stupid mortals on the first seriously and then suddenly the thrice damned things have the audacity to not fail and keep not failing and he can’t maintain the lies he tells to himself. Elidibus knows that with out the other two he won’t be able to maintain enough memory to keep doing his duty so he just goes at it balls to the wall even though it would have been better to just let things cool off.

The Plan (tm) was completely on track.

The Unsundered were a time bomb that had just gone off. 

looks. guys. gals. non-binary pals.

shadowbringers spoilers

Emet-Selch was winning. By all metrics, right until the Unsundered tripped over our Warrior of Light and it all started unravelling like a loosely knitted cardigan, the Convocation of Three was at the crest and just starting the downhill slide to utter victory.

Hydaelyn was leaking the last of her strength like a punctured balloon. Midgardsormr had to cut us off from the teat for awhile as our drain could easily have been the end of the Mother - if it turned out we weren't the right Chosen One and she had to somehow struggle on just that little bit further, she had almost nothing left in reserve.

The Eighth Umbral Calamity was being held back by a thread. Nearly all of the First was lost, Light was starting to pour through the cracks into the Source and Black Rose was right there to receive and amplify it as the perfect confluence of events, oh so carefully set up by our darling empire-builder.

We've all got our opinions about why Emet-Selch engineered his own defeat, but please don't say its because he was desperate and losing. He wasn't. They weren't. He could have simply stepped back for a nap for a hundred more years and returned to pick it all back up again with nary a blink of his golden eye, reset the pieces and played again. And again. And again, for as long as necessary. The fact that he didn't is the most interesting thing out of all of it because he objectively had the higher ground and could so easily have kept it - and chose not to.

Hydaelyn would have been swept away, if they'd managed just one more Ardor. Just one more, that's all they needed, they were so close.

____

yes, i read another post about how emet-selch knew he was on the ropes and was grateful to be stopped before "it went too far". blech. ack. noooooo. so wrong.

[gilded-grimoire]

Shadowbringers is my favorite expansion, and the scene by the rock always breaks me  💔

[tina2180]

Follow in the Light of the Crystal...

[gladiogotdatbootio]

Oh course that dumb mother fucker would step on something.

[coffeecakes7]

do you ever get the feeling something really bad is about to happen.