#the Unending Journey

[bnuuywol]

I can't lose him. Not again. Not again. Not again.

[twelvesblades]

I'm obsessed with the (Lost) West Shroud... give Eorzea proper an exploratory map...

[anneapocalypse]

I've started rewatching ARR cutscenes for Urianger voice study stuff but also just really enjoying reliving meeting the Scions. It's been over a year since I started playing, which probably doesn't sound like very long to the veterans, but I haven't revisited any of this since, and it's different knowing all the later context and who the characters are. There are so many details I straight up don't remember. It's nice to have a refresher.

A lot of the voice acting is a bit jarring now, and not just because the actors are different, but I don't think any of it is bad per se--like I don't remember having any major issues with the voice acting on the first run--so much as the characters haven't been fully established yet, they haven't grown into the characters we'll later know.

I still feel a certain fondness for Gideon Emery!Urianger, because I do love Gideon Emery and he just has such a wonderful voice, but I have grown very fond of Timothy Watson!Urianger, so I don't really miss it anymore.

It's so good to see Minfilia again. I miss her. It also cracks me up how when Urianger greets you with a Louisoix quote, she gives him a look, like "Urianger please, you're confusing the sprout," and he quickly course-corrects. Much as I love how he comes out of his shell later, I am also very deeply fond of early, cryptic, hood-wearing, poorly socialized Urianger. :)

I had also completely forgotten that Thancred's flirty/angsty personality dichotomy is set up real fast for the player after he realizes he almost got them eaten by Ifrit.

[stormbabylore]

Well, I did it… powered through and finished EW MSQ before the update.

A couple screenshots of her reminiscing over The Unending Journey felt fitting, here.

(I probably could have gone into gpose to make these a little nicer, but that would have required me to stop crying long enough to use logicthoughts instead of emotionthoughts.)

[thefinalwitness]

13. What is their go-to for making a partner feel loved?

I'm not sure what ships you have, so your choice!

HII IM LATE TO THIS BUT THANK U!!!!! we're a wolshtola household so theyre who ill talk about hehe

l'aiha likes to do a lot of subtle or indirect things, as even when they're married, she and y'shtola tend to be fairly independent outside of having similar research ambitions! l'aiha will bring her a drink or small lunch when she's busy/distracted, and leave her notes regarding y'shtola's current project that l'aiha had thoughts or ideas about.

one thing in particular l'aiha did was go back to the first to retrieve y'shtola's real heartstone (as detailed in the rak'tika msq)! it's mentioned that tataru remakes everyone's shb clothes after they return to the source, so i headcanon that while she made a beautiful replica of y'shtola's heartstone, it lacks the sentimental value of the original.

it's also fragiler, and l'aiha learns how important it is to y'shtola when it accidentally drops and breaks. so l'aiha goes back to the first, checks up on the night's blessed, and asks for the original stone as well as any other items 'master matoya' particularly cherished.

(which, consequentially, is how l'aiha learned of one of the subtler ways y'shtola loves her! y'shtola has a HUGE collection of ronkan tomes and stone tablets regarding the echo-wielding viera of ancient past, who i headcanon was a preincarnation of ardbert, l'aiha's first shard, and generally was heralded as a 'warrior of light' in an era prior to the flood.

runar explains to l'aiha that y'shtola 'foresaw' her coming to the first, and researched heavily on figures throughout history that were similar to l'aiha in role or abilities. she would then tell runar endless stories about l'aiha. :') runar correctly surmised y'shtola loved l'aiha, but y'shtola hadn't actually REALIZED that herself until runar just up and said it, hehe.)

[vintagedean]

wait what if I talked about the terror AND spn parallels at the same time?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Started a new book series, and has been a journey...an Odyssey, if you will.

[zylphiacrowley]

A Master at His Craft

<previous - next>

[elizabethrobertajones]

I still don't know what to make of this little story beat. I KNOW the game isn't being written for me, personally. I Know that despite saying otherwise, Bounding Frog is not the Canonical Warrior Of Light. I understand that things just kinda happen based on themes and characters and stuff and things had been established in some way with Erenville having toad-based associations, having previously claimed to be an expert.

On the other hand, the first zone I chose to go to, the very first thing we did, was split up to go investigate a body of water and draw some conclusions like an amateur ecologist on what may be afflicting it. And there was a cute little creature named Lethargic Frog, which is about as "hey this is symbolically important to you, Bounding Frog, someone who takes their whole name inspiration from the admirable leaping power of a healthy frog based on their childhood experiences catching frogs, just as the noble Vipers named themselves after the snakes they learned from" as can be.

This frog was placed here for Frog to see and based on her entire personality, to notice and care about and understand how it was not feeling good.

Also, the writer of this quest wanted Bounding Frog personally to know this was her chance to prove to Erenville that she did know her frogs, and was perfectly capable of talking to him frog expert to frog expert. I can't overstate how thrilled she was that she had this opportunity. She was going to show him that she was just as competent! She could impress him, she could prove she was worth talking about frogs to... Yep.

Aaand then after all this careful study of the Lethargic Frog, she bounces back to the group, and this happens...

She starts to explain about the water quality and fields, saving her deepest insight for last, you know, the other thing the quest made sure we would see and interact with so even if I allow for a WoL to exist who isn't a Frog Expert like mine (who this quest was personally tailored to, again) you might reasonably expect that after Krile has agreed with you about the first point, you MIGHT KEEP SPEAKING ON THE SUBJECT OF YOUR OBSERVATIONS.

Nah, before Frog can open her mouth again, Erenville cuts in to announce that the frogs are kinda sleepy, while she was politely waiting her turn to speak. All she can do is stoically nod and agree everyone noticed the same things she did (shh Alisaie has something funny to say on the subject before you return to the group to chat as well), and that's that, we're rushing off to the next thing and the opportunity has fizzled out and there's no chance to impress because Erenville stole it from her...

How could they have known we need to start this adventure with a huge knock to Frog's ego when it comes to Erenville, and a reminder of why they've been snarking at each other for months. And he's far more concerned with Wuk Lamat presenting a semi-competent front and feeling chafed by travelling with other people to even notice he was, once again, catastrophically rude on the subject of frogs, to Frog.

All her attempts to befriend him and make him laugh and generally have him notice her for the last few months, and she's riiiight back at step one, fuming about his existence and sulking about how he won't let her have the one thing she most prides herself on, because he's too busy being some sort of frog snob himself.

So, yeah, I think the writer of this quest knew that Frog was the main character and also that Erenville is her nemesis :)

[ariadne-mouse]

Ah yes, a spontaneously-generated Fold Cake. It takes three tearrors occurring at the same time to produce this marvelous culinary delicacy. A three-tearror cake, if you will. Sometimes edible, sometimes carnivorous, sometimes both! Enjoy with caution.

[bnuuywol]

“What is it you want from me?” “To make a foul, unholy beast such as you suffer for those you slaughtered.”

(x)

[twelvesblades]

Aglaia - the Heaven of Lightning

[null-doesnothing]

"hey you doing alright?" no actually I'm thinking about Sarek again

[ooowyn]

HAPPY LONDON FANFEST IM READY TO BE A VIPER MAIN

[dirty-ffxiv-confessions]

Confession: any enshrouded zenos lovers here or just me? he's got a knot. i know he does.

also would it be a threesome by virtue of zero kind of technically being there

[picture from the final fantasy xiv wiki]

[autumnslance]

Viewing FFXIV's Opening Cutscenes

When you open the Unending Journey to rewatch cutscenes, you'll notice the Seventh Umbral Era MSQ, the default pane it opens on, starts at the level 5 quest, when WoL first meets their starter city's Scions.

It may seem like the introductory cutscenes upon first making a character, with the vision of facing Lahabrea before waking in the carriage/ship with your starter city merchant triplet and the silent Leveilleur twins are lost, right?

Not so! For whatever reason, the opening cutscenes and title card for ARR as WoL arrives in Eorzea are in Sidequests.

In the Unending Journey navigate to the fourth icon, a silvery Q on a light blue backing; in the image below there's a big red arrow pointing at it.

This defaults to "Chronicles of Light" but open the dropdown menu and find the starter city sidequests: Lominsan Sidequests Gridanian Sidequests Ul'dahn Sidequests They're partway down the list. In the screenshot below, I have them boxed in red with another red arrow on the menu's right side pointing at them.

Since Dark's start city was Gridania, I'm going to select the "Gridanian Sidequests". The very first option is "Coming to Gridania" and describes meeting Bertennant at the Blue Badger Gate.

Here's the first five scenes in the game; the first time we hear Crystal Mom's voice (when that was Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, under her "Lucy Todd" credit) and get the vision of our future faceoff with Lahabrea, then the carriage sequence, Louisoix's voiceover intro and title card, meeting your city greeter, and then meeting your city's Adventurer's Guild Representative.

One more note about this opening cutscene!

If viewing as one of the original ARR classes, the initial scene shows them changing into the level 50 Artifact gear and wielding their weapon of choice; in this example, that's a Bard with a Bow of Light.

But swapping to any job introduced in Heavensward or later, it defaults the job selection to Paladin; below Dark is in healer gear as an Astrologian, but ARR doesn't know how to parse that so defaults to the Gallant Armor with a Sword & Shield of Light. We see this "Gladiator Default" with NPCs who don't have their "real jobs" implemented yet (Thancred in base ARR, Alisaie just before Stormblood, etc) and also when a WoL draws their Crafting or Gathering tools.

And there you have it! How to rewatch the very first cutscenes in the game that we see upon making our WoLs and starting the MSQ.