#squapes :)

[amememightywarrior]

Food in Dawntrail

Gonna go ahead and share my thoughts on it as posted on twitter, excuse the format!

I found the prevalence of food in DT's MSQ very interesting. In a lot of cultures, food and food-sharing are acts of love both familial and neighborly. It also symbolized a desire to reach out and understand one another, from xibruq pibil to tacos to ice cream to weird grapes.

Our first encounter with food in DT is when Wuk Lamat wants to give us some tacos, but then BJJ smashes them carelessly, a sign that he is rejecting sharing and love

During the lay of repast, which is ALL about food, we learn a lot about the symbolism of meals and food and culture. It's great. 

Zoraal Ja and Bakool Ja Ja are teamed up and shown to not understand or care about food and sharing despite the BLATANT emphasis on it in the trial.

More subtle stuff that isn't called out is the way food is raised - like the Crystarium, where wandering around can reveal the importance, if you wander around DT you can find an example of what's called the three sisters method of farming.

For those unfamiliar with this system, it's actually a very culturally important method of farming in the americas where 3 staple crops, maize, squash, and beans, are grown together in a harmonious fashion. and i mean TOGETHER.

The maize, which grows tall and strong, provides support for the beanstalks which curl around it and provide stabilization both physically and nutritionally. At their feet grows the ground-covering squash which shades the soil, keeping it moist and preventing weeds.

The next major time we learn of food and agriculture is in heritage found, where we see people preserving real food as an act of culture more than anything else, showing the resilience of culture and the spirit of sharing in even the most lightning riddled situations.

After that it gets interesting. The concept of food in S9 is abstracted into the absurd (the grapes??? help), but they still share the food. More than that, it's a SPECTATOR sport, seeing WoL and Wuk Lamat eat. If you've ever been to a dinner with a family of a different culture, you will know the experience of tasting a new cuisine for the first time, and people asking you what you think of it. They share their culture with you and hope you approve. It's the sharing of joy, and it's the same as when you eat in S9.

Then we're REALLY challenged. We enter living memory and find the inhabitants feasting on the mere idea of food. They share with us as well, giving us popcorn. Did you lie and say it was great? Did you speak the truth of your tastebuds and reject the popcorn?

The food in living memory is tasteless to us, the only real ones in the place. But the act of sharing, that was the real important part. And so perhaps if WoL lied, it was not to spare feelings, but to show that yes, they were sharing in joy and culture.

Thus introduced, we are hit with that ice cream. We know it tastes of nothing, but we give it to Krile and her parents to share. Krile knows it doesn't taste like anything, and she struggles. But G'raha zips in with his own, to make her laugh and help her understand the joy.

The way each character reacts to food within DT is symbolic and shows a bit of their own perspectives. Someone who's very out on the edges, Estinien, is also someone who has embraced food very heavily after being freed from Nidhogg. He runs around eating everything in sight now.

And of course we also have the cornservant, who wants to feed everyone. I haven't actually done that quest line yet but I can already tell you what's at the heart of it XD

A lot of this we all know, I'm just calling it out specifically because it was beautifully done in DT.

Oh, before I forget: Otis and Gulool Ja

Otis, despite being, er...mechanical, has been feeding Gulool Ja. It is a familial act, feeding and helping this child grow despite zero relation.

is it just another fetch quest? Another shared meal of many shared meals in the field? Or is it asking us to look at this meal in the context of all that came before it?

What does it mean to love and care for one another? Otis shows it by being there and feeding Gulool Ja.

It contrasts with two other parties: Cahciuna's group, and Zoraal Ja.

Zoraal Ja does nothing. He does not feed his child. Abandoned him outright. ZJ rejects family, love, and sharing.

Cahciuna's group is trying really hard to take care of him, and he does allow it because they keep finding and taking him home. But why does he run away to eat with Otis? Cahciuna's response to realizing he WANTS to leave is to allow it instead of insisting.

I find that rather mysterious but I think it shows Gulool Ja prefers organic sharing, not S9 where everything is simply handed to him. Hopefully we see more of him in the future so we can learn wtf is up with this little blue-scaled cutie.

Food takes a background role in a lot of stories but DT took it, explained it, and then challenged our understanding by taking away the most talked about component, stripping away flavor to ask us what the point of food-sharing really is and how it reflects ourselves & our culture.

We've seen a lot of these themes before - ARR used to have a whole thing about feeding the soldiers before the assault on the garlean strongholds, SHB had the infamous rhon ron food stand scene, etc

we just got it called out repeatedly and the concept gently deconstructed for us in DT. 

So. what does the act of food-sharing mean to you? What does it mean to your WoL? How did you see the Lay of Repast? What did you think of the popcorn?

[starryscale-art]

yummm

[fortunafavore]

[chronicallykiki]

🍇 Final Fantasy XIV 🍇

❗️SPOILERS AHEAD❗️

[marinewaltz]

squapey candies coming to the store soonnnn

[commodorefluffypawz]

A classic FFXIV meme~ Now a sticker available in my shop!

[cklukilutz]

Merry Squapemas!!

[eriecraft]

What's this?? I hear squapes are making a comeback, and IT IS ABOUT TIME! I welcome each and every instance of our low-polygon fruit snacks.

Our first ever jobstones are now going to be back in stock, tomorrow at 8pm EST!

~ResinGremlin

[daikaiju-chaos]

Here's a quick freaking doodle I made in order to appease my internal art idea generation.

So, a newhu from the new Touhou game. Her design has grapes, the Yomotsu-shikome, what she is, is easily distracted by grapes. I'm a fan of FF14. I did the math and I couldn't not.

The grape lady is fascinated by the squape!

[digeethegenie]

Everyone Loves Squapes

Day 06 - Halcyon Endwalker (6.0) - Endwalker

Hades sighed as he walked around the island of Noetophoreon. He really wasn't in the mood for games and could do well without the encentricities of his friend right now.

"Eurydice." He called out with his signature leack of energy. "Honeslty, I don't have time for this right now."

He shook his head and wandered near one of the island's infamous purple-topped trees.

"Really, this is no time for playing around, I'm here to talk to you as a member of the convercation. As he of the seat of Em-"

Just as he started pulling rank, a figgure appeared from the tree flopping down drematically like a corpse. Hades- inspite of this happening almost every time the two met- jumped three feet clear off the ground, yellped in shock, and invoked the names of several gods yet to be worshiped as he landed back on the ground. Grasping his chest to gain his breath he watched as the figgure's long blonde hair, covered in purple leafs, flopped down wards.

The figgure, who was very much not a corpse, smiled like a carefree child at Hades as they hung upside down off the tree.

"Hi there, Hades!" they said, their smile like the sun.

Hades splutterd, his hands waving over his head as his mind tried to catch up with his friends unflapable pace, then shook his head.

"Oh, don't you "Hi there, Hades" me. Eurydice." he said, giving them a look a teacher would give their most troubling student. "The council is in fits after the stunt you've just pulled!"

"I couldn't-" Eurydice started before asking Hades to hold on and then, before he could protest, leaping out from their vantage point, somehow pulling a summeralt even whilst dressed in the robes and landing with their arms streched out. "- I couldn't possibly know what you're talking about."

The fact that They could so casually dismiss what was a very serious breach of protocol was very much in keeping in them as a Person. It was also, honestly, part of why Hades liked them as a friend, even if it was giving him the mother of all headaches at this very minute.

"Let me remind you, then. Does the words 'Fought a vulcano into submission' ring any bells to you?"

Eurydice's freckled face drew a blank, dot-eyed, expresion as they realised what this was about.

"Ah."

" 'Ah', Indeed. What were you thinking?" Hades asked, his voice showing genuine concern. "The convercation was split down the middle about having you censured for it. If it wasn't for me, we'd be having a very, very diffrent conversion right now, Eurydice."

Still not quite taking the weight of the situation to heart, Eurydice waved Hades off. "Oh come on. Its not like Themis wouldn't have my back if it came down to it."

Hades closed his eyes. "Elidibus was the one to suggest making the censure formal."

That bombshell got Eurydice to quack out a "gack!" and nearly fall over. They quickly recovered, threw their hand behind their head, laughed, gave Hades a look that genuinly got across how sorry they were and said as much.

A small gasp of exasperation escaped Hades' mouth. Part of it was convercation related wearyness and the other was for the fact that Eurydice was incredibly cute in these sorts of moments.

"Well, sure. But that still doesn't answer my question. What was They of The Seat of Azem thikning?"

Eurydice took a second to think before they looked at Hades. "You promise you won't be angry?"

"… Yes." Hades said, his monosolabic tone making it clear that he wasn't quite sure if he was ready for whatever nonsense was going to ensue.

From Their robe, Eurydice produced a curiously shapped bunch of grapes.

Hades wasn't even angry.

He just let out a 'buh' escape his mouth in pure confusion.

"Grapes?!" he said, a little more incredulously than he had intended to sound.

"Oh come on, Hades!" Eurydice pouted. "They're squapes! Everyone loves squapes!"

The squape, or to give it its proper name, the galbadian grape, was a grape that grew on the island of Galbadia that was famous- or infamous, depending on who you asked- for the prequiler way in which they grew. No matter what anyone tried when growing them, they would always bunch up into a crystal like formations.

The picture of everything started to form in Hades' mind and he let out another sigh.

"So to quickly summise, you turned the aether of an active vulcano into a createion and then challenged it into a fist fight because you wanted to save some grapes that grew oddly."

Eurydice nodded, all too quickly. "That is exactly right yes."

Hades sighed. He knew when Eurydice was hiding something but knew better than to ask outright.

"So, off-record, you did all that to save a curiosity."

"Yes."

"And not, and I am being entirely hypothetical here, to save the island of Galbadia from being destroyed by the volcano you fist fought into submission?"

Eurydice tried their best to maintain eye contact with Hades.

They were not doing a very good job at it.

"…that is correct."

A smile crossed Hades' face before he shook his head. "Well, come on. I need to talk to Hephaistos and Venat, given you clearly colluded with them."

The two started to walk away, Eurydice trying to get Lahabreha and the previous Azem off the hook by denying their role in the scheme and Hades making it clear that he knew about Ifrita and Ifreeta, Venat's own take on the creation's design.

[amememightywarrior]

ameme and her squapes (2023)

[koffeewitch]

My shop is now open!

I got Slime Rancher, Bayonetta, Honkai Star Rail, Pokemon and more!

For the first week, until October 28th, get 20% off orders of $10+ 💕

[kikisqueaks]

[chronicallykiki]

🍇 Final Fantasy XIV 🍇

❗️SPOILERS AHEAD❗️

[capsicrew]

there is absolutely no way this wasn't made as a jab at the polygonal grapes in EW lmfao

[aliciachimera]

squapes, from last year

ft. @hard-corp-kimberly