#why is dawntrail my shadowbringers

[ferrocyan]

(arcadion spoiler) sorry im still thinking about

how tart is now the crystal exarch to eutropes wol like its looking at someone you can save by dying and the thing is however much you dont wanna die you can clearly see this person also wants to live and if you can grant them that hope of survival how can you not give it to them. she needs you.

[lunapwrites]

Today's "woke up with this stuck in my head" ear worm:

[eorzea80]

Ok. So hear me out...what if Thom survives by being transported to The First? ----- "'Thoma! Please!" "Mr. Exarch! You are far too cautious. As you can see, I've made it down the rail unscathed!" The Crystal Exarch sighs and places his cooler hand against his temples. This new guest is not unwelcome, but rather challenging. "Yes, but this is our commercial district. Our citizens need to pass down those stairs and might want for the use..." He sighs deeply, yet again." ...Of a railing." "...at 6 AM? Really, 'Raha?" The Crystal Exarch starts forward to cover Thom's mouth. Thom pulls up his board against his hands. G'raha starts to flush and spit.

"Thoma, no! These people...how, how do you know? They cannot discover...!" Thom taps the rough of the board against his lips, looking innocently at the stained glass ceiling. "That's a secret of us stick holders. You know I was a Lancer, then a Dragoon for a time. I knew a little of your exploits on Sharlayan...from my wife..." G'raha starts to look pale. He looks pleadingly up at Thom to not destroy his legacy; Minfilia's legacy on The First. Not to destroy what Pryne helped him to accomplish.

Thom pats G'raha on the back and hears a disturbing rattle. His brain spins out, "Not just too stony, also much too thin...damn this guy."

Thom clears his throat. "But miqo'te to mystel," They both soften and smile. G'raha starts to melt with relief, "I'm in for whatever Pryne is in for. Your secret is always safe with me." "Except at dawn, apparently." Thom chuckles at G'raha's admonishment. "Yes, with dawn comes the truth..."

Thom spreads his arms wide around them both, soaking in the sunrise.

"Say, do you want to learn how to ride this thing, O CRYSTAL EXARCH!" He shouts to the ends of Musica Universalis, as vendors creep towards their stands in the dim light. From Philline emerges a small hoot of approval. Hanji-Fae just chuckles. "Goodness no! I couldn't..." "Come on then!" Thom grabs the leader of The Crystarium by the midsection and places his feet firmly on the board. "I know you need a better way to get around than on foot. Let's figure this out, mystel to mystel, understood?" G'raha blushes for a moment. He suddenly can see what Pryne was saying when she looked at the stars around the Crystal Tower, seaching for Thom in the unfixed aether. "Understood." ---- MEANWHILE IN EITHERYS ---- "MS. CARIS!! PLEASE DO NOT SKATE INSIDE THE BAR!" "Oh, Vendingway. You are a stuffed shirt." "MS. CARIS. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. I JUST KNOW YOU ARE SPLITTING THE FLOORBOARDS!"

[heightsofmadness]

oh hey I reached that point in shadowbringers

It's really funny how the Crystal Exarch starts as this unknowable X-factor, this wildcard, this utter force of nature in the plot that nobody quite knows how to deal with or whether to trust, and then he lowers his hood to reveal he's a catboy and suddenly he's the prince of physical comedy

behold my discord stickers

[anneapocalypse]

It didn't have to be you.

I'm not just okay with it, I actually really like the fact that the Warrior of Light and their companions take a more supporting role in Dawntrail. I enjoyed the Scions' role in the story and was happy to see all my faves onscreen, I just didn't mind them taking the backseat to some new characters. I really loved Wuk Lamat and also enjoyed Erenville and Koana and Bakool Ja Ja and even Zoraal Ja as a villain a great deal. But it's more than just the fact that I loved the new characters and the focus on developing them and their setting.

So much of the Warrior of Light's story has been about... the burdens of being the Warrior of Light. How awful and exhausting and isolating and even depersonalizing it can be to be the only one who can solve the problem, again and again and again. It's such a thing in ARR that the patches kind of lampshade the dehumanization your character faces, the way the Scions kind of take the WoL for granted early on, something I've written about before. It's still present as late as Shadowbringers, being a major point of that story's plot that only the Warrior of Light can do this thing, and they very nearly die as a result. This theme finally finds its resolution in Endwalker when you meet Hydaelyn face to face, you learn of the promise made in another time, you learn why it had to be you.

That story arc is finished now. You've done what only you could do. You know why you were the Warrior of Light. If you were at Carteneau, you know why you survived and came back. You know why Hydaelyn had to keep you alive, even as so many of your friends died around you. (That last thing in particular is such a major part of Ariane's story arc; it's the central thing she's wrestling with in the fic I'm currently working on, so it was at the forefront of my mind playing Dawntrail.)

It doesn't have to be you anymore.

That's not a downside for me. That is the appeal. It felt so appropriate to me after the tremendously heavy, world-ending stakes of Endwalker. My character could be invested without everything riding on her shoulders. She could help, voluntarily (in-universe, obviously the game asks you to accept this premise in order to like, play it), without everyone looking to her and going, "Well, it has to be you, so you'll do it, right?" In fact, had that continued, it wouldn't have felt right to me. It would have felt like it undid some of the narrative and thematic closure that Endwalker offered.

So this felt like the natural progression of the Warrior of Light's role in the story following Endwalker to me, and I thought it worked for the story, while allowing me to still feel invested and see a cool new setting and meet some great new characters.

[eemamminy-art]

Thoughts on UriThan?

ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I like it well enough!! I was really intrigued by the concept of the ship at the start of stormblood because they're the only ones to stay behind, and they also both had these plot lines where they were seemingly betraying the scions but didn't in the end. So I had this whole idea in mind of like... They're kind of outsiders and that's what draws them to one another? 👀 I also feel like they'd bond over grief and how they handle it in different ways regarding Moenbryda and Minfilia!

I know people mainly ship it during shadowbringers and I do see the vision there too: Thancred is at his worst with his mental health and Urianger is trying to care for him in whatever ways he can but he's never really been good with people so he's a bit clumsy about it. But he means well, and Thancred appreciates it, even if they're both bad at showing that. It is really sweet! But I found the more compelling angle to be like, when they're feeling like outsiders in their own group during really difficult times for them both, leaning into each other. Even if it's just for like, casual hook-ups or Urianger helping Thancred bathe or something!

I think by the time of dawntrail they do act like an old married couple for sure, it's really cute! I'm going on this long ramble about why it's great but I'm ultimately like yeah they're pretty cool 🙂👍 silly haha

Send me a ship to rate

[terramythos]

Anyway here's my breakdown of the ffxiv jobs, my opinions on playing each, and the tier rank of how good their story was

TANKS

WARRIOR - warrior is so fucking funny why did they make it able to solo heal itself and the entire party in 90% of the content in the game. Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting is so broken in dungeons its hilarious. And then they have like 3 additional healing skills on top of that. And they kept buffing it throughout Endwalker. So it is currently the easiest to play, does the most damage (i think...?), and has the best healing of any of the Tank jobs. 2nd fave probably.

Story Tier: C, it's ok, Curious Gorge is a good name. i have like nothing to say about it it's a generic AF story

PALADIN - I used to hate PLD but I think the partial rework they got halfway through Endwalker helped it a lot. It's much less clunky now. Probably still my least favorite Tank though Hallowed Ground is fun and it's pretty close to Gunbreaker for me.

Story Tier: F, this is the worst class storyline in the entire game. It's so stupid. The writing is so bad the writers acknowledge it makes no sense at all and I'm like. Yeah, thanks, I am experiencing this shit. Perhaps write a story that makes sense next time instead of pointing that out.

DARK KNIGHT - Unfortunately this is my favorite Tank 🫡 which is rough since it has the worst survivability out of any of them. But I love how you use MP and the silly number of OGCDs. The Blackest Night is such a fun ability and it's a crime that it's not a baseline skill you get from the start. Why do they have so many DRs that only cover magic damage. I must ask.

Story Tier: S, there's a reason it's the most popular and well regarded class storyline. It's really good, also the only questline I know of that uses the quest log text as part of the narrative. Outside maybe a few of the very late Endwalker quests. And, well... same writer lmao

GUNBREAKER: I think GNB looks cool as fuck and I like that it has 2 DPS rotations. The Gnashing Fang combo is so fun. Superbolide memes are always fun. My main issue with it is a skill issue because I am just constantly misaligning its burst windows.

Story Tier: C. It has some interesting lore but I found it pretty forgettable as a story.

HEALERS

WHITE MAGE: I hated White Mage for a while but something clicked and now I totally get it. I find it fun in dungeons cause you get to Holy spam and stun lock everything. As uh. The healer. That's fun. Once you get Afflatus heals (and then Afflatus Misery) it clicks. It's fun maximizing damage and playing chicken with the tank's HP.

Story Tier: B, you get a lot of lore around the Padjal, and I think the Stormblood story where you find a padjal living in hiding with her mother is pretty good! Also it's not technically the job storyline but there's a WHM side quest to get a unicorn mount? i guess it's technically a CNJ quest but same diff. no one else gets that shit. so that's cool

SCHOLAR: probably my least favorite of the healers... it just feels super clunky. You can tell a bunch of different design philosophies went into it over the years and none of them mesh very well. They've made it so the Fairy Gauge controls literally one spell. Why have the gauge at all? It's also a huge missed opportunity that there's no tie in or interaction with the fae in Shadowbringers. I love the idea of a battle tactician healer but I think it needs a rework.

Story Tier: B+, I liked the characters and its the main way to get backstory and lore on what happened with Nym.

ASTROLOGIAN: While I think AST has a similar issue to SCH (lots of different design philosophies over the years) I find it way more fun to play. I like the card mechanic and how it interacts with the rest of the party. AST is basically the only job that has its own like. Minigame? As part of its rotation. And I know a lot of people don't like the RNG for it but personally I find it fun. I know AST is getting a redesign in Dawntrail so hope it's good.

Story Tier: C? I think? I'll be honest I don't remember it super well but I didn't find anything objectionable about it. And I like the tarot aesthetic and lore and how it's healing based on manipulating luck.

SAGE: I think SGE is tons of fun, I'm not sure if I like it or WHM more. I love all the skills SGE has for preventing damage and the gimmick where your DPS heals someone in the party. Visually the hi-tech laser shooting healer is a lot of fun. IT HAS A GAP CLOSER. The only thing i wish was it wasn't so MP negative and that it did more damage. It's a little sad its DPS output is so low compared to the other healers (even AST when you factor in how it buffs the party). Since SGE is supposed to be a healer that heals through damage it's silly its damage kinda sucks.

Story Tier: A, I loved this storyline. Both the Endwalker job stories are very self contained and interesting. While the twist is pretty obvious it's still an interesting exploration of uh. Scientific ethics. Yeah

PHYSICAL MELEE DPS

MONK: I've probably played MNK the least of the phys melee but I like the whole adaptable combo thing. Not much else to say since I have played it so little. Might bring it back out and try again. It DID have the funniest guide in the Balance discord for a while.

Story Tier: D. I think? I remember thinking it was dumb, lmao. Sorry.

DRAGOON: MAN I wished I liked DRG more. It looks so fucking cool and I like how it interacts with the dragon lore. But I find it very punishing to play. To do good damage you have to align so many different cooldowns... and snapshot your DOT correctly... and screwing one thing up just fucks your DPS output forever. Like AST I believe this is being reworked in Dawntrail so I hope it feels better to play.

Story Tier: C+. I think it starts strong since you get to meet Estinien pre-Heavensward and it melds nicely with that story. But I found it pretty directionless post-HW which is a shame.

NINJA: I remember finding this one fun. I like that there are different combos you do that have varied finishers depending on the situation. I am just... bad at remembering which combo to use to get which finisher, lol. So I haven't played it as much. NIN gets a lot of flavor other jobs don't get with their unique run and jump animations. And you get a Bunny of Shame on your head if you fuck up a combo, which is incredible.

Story Tier: A. The Rogue story is probably the most memorable of the basic class quests. Ninja just has great characters and a fun story. What is with that one guy. Karasu? If you know you know. I also like how the Rogue characters show up later in the Ninja story. That's fun.

SAMURAI: I had a similar experience to WHM here because I initially hated it then really came around once it clicked. SAM seems very complex, it has a ton of buttons and different combos. But it is actually quite intuitive once you figure out the general pattern. And it does INSANE damage. I think it's the highest DPS output in the game? I love building the combos and then doing a huge finisher for a bajillion damage. The guaranteed crits and constant OGCD weaves make me feel unstoppable. I think this is tied with RPR for me.

Story Tier: B+. I found the exiled samurai character and his journey toward redemption very compelling. I won't spoil beyond that. However it does fall apart a little in the second half. Still fun but not as good.

REAPER: I love RPR, the teleportation is a lot of fun, and I love finally unleashing the demon form and going ham on the enemy. The weapons are the coolest looking in the game. Every scythe design hits. I probably played this the most in Endwalker. My main critique is the Death's Design mechanic. I hate having to keep a stupid debuff on the target to do damage. It's like a dot but without the optimized snapshotting. If they want to keep this idea i think it would feel better to change it into something like SGE's Kardia where you apply it to one enemy to do increased damage to it without having to worry about reapplying it. not sure how they would balance this for aoe but that's not my job. But even with that caveat I still really enjoy the job.

Story Tier: A+. While it doesn't reach the highs of DRK's story it comes close. I love the badass old lady main character. Her hunting a voidsent that possessed her grandfather would be cool enough but making her a Garlean exile in hiding who grudgingly agrees to train you just adds an extra cool factor. I really enjoyed this story. As a bonus theres a lot of incidental dialogue in the post-6.0 Endwalker story if you completed the RPR story because it ties in a lot.

PHYSICAL RANGED DPS

BARD: It's a bit clunky, its got some outdated design elements, it has one of the lowest damage outputs in the game... and i LOVE IT. this was technically the first job I ever played? totally different character like 8 years ago. and i was so so bad. I think i am actually pretty good at current BRD. the animations look cool. i like that it's a class you really need to work for and optimize to eke out that last bit of damage. and boosting everyone else's damage by existing is kinda neat.

Story Tier: B. I'll be real I barely remember this but I do remember it was gay as fuck so immediately gets an extra tier for that.

MACHINIST: MCH is really funny right now because like. It's phys ranged, right. The design behind phys ranged is you have 100% uptime cause you can freely move around and not have to worry about cast timers or melee range or anything. So the trade off is that they do less damage than other classes. Endwalker MCH did not get the memo and does insane damage anyway. My controversial opinion is that it has similar burst DPS to RPR. No i will not elaborate. I'm also bad at doing good damage on MCH which is impressive since it is easy.

Story Tier: B+. Some Ishgard noble's gay son wants to build machines instead of killing dragons the good old fashioned way and has to prove himself to get taken seriously. A tale as old as time. See I haven't done this quest in like years but I still remember it. He is a memorable character. It's just not like. knockout wowza compared to the A tier stories.

DANCER: Dancer is the second easiest DPS job in the game behind SMN. So if i am sleepy it's the one I like playing. You play simon says. you do a lot of damage when you play simon says then do almost no fucking damage otherwise. I think it's the lowest direct damage in the game? for a dps i mean. You have high stakes sexual tension with a DPS of your choice via Dance Partner. I wish other DNC players knew how Dance Partner works. YOU CAN DANCE PARTNER ANOTHER DANCER. THE BUFF STACKS. BUT YOU CANNOT DANCE PARTNER THE SAME PLAYER AS ANOTHER DANCER. THOSE BUFFS DO NOT STACK. ok i'm good. anyway

Story Tier: C. there's some shit about negative emotions and purging them? in theory i think this has some interesting implications with Endwalker lore considering Dynamis and its role in the story. Very similar mechanically to what's going on with the DNC story. but i really don't think the writers made the connection so it's like pure speculation and not the actual story. It's meh. fine i guess. i did like all the flashy dancing sequences.

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

BLACK MAGE: I am so so so so so so so bad at BLM. i pull up the guide. i read the guide. it all makes perfect sense. i go into a dungeon or trial or something. somehow i always get like Zeromus or some shit. and i drop Enochian or something and everything goes to shit and i'm yelling and i'm not even like slide casting or teleporting or anything i just run around crying. then i remember i have like 10 more buttons i haven't been pressing and oh god the dot fell off. people play this? for fun? i admire it. apparently they do a ton of damage if you can play it. could not be me.

Story Tier: B? There's some voidsent and Thirteenth lore. all the black mage characters are Lalafell because it's funny i guess. OH YEAH it has like the one named male Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te NPC in the entire game and he's fun. look at this twink:

sorry i don't have anything to say about BLM i am bad at it

SUMMONER: easiest DPS job in the entire game. they redesigned it for Endwalker so it is practically a new job. i have no idea how it played before. but it is super streamlined. maybe too streamlined? it's another one to play if you want to turn your brain off. i like that at 90 you summon The Actual Primals instead of little representations of them. and i like the way your burst phase switches between Bahamut and Phoenix. it all looks very cool. they should add Leviathan as a summon in Dawntrail.

Story Tier: C.. i don't remember a single thing about this questline except you interact with Y'shtola's half sister. i think you go to Cartenau at some point. idk

RED MAGE: RDM is one of those jobs that looks really complicated when you start then you actually play it and it is just super super easy. that being said i think it's really fun. I like balancing the white and black magic gauges. Dualcast is a great gimmick and it feels cool to lob two big spells in a row at something. Dualcast Verraising a chain of dead players is so fucking funny. it's a shame that the existence of Verraise means RDM does shit damage to compensate for its utility. It and DNC just sit at the bottom with BRD barely scratching ahead of them. i think? i don't remember LOL

Story Tier: A, I really like the story and characters. I like that you have a middle-age world weary catboy (catman) as your mentor. and i like that he canonically trained Alisaie too and you chat a little about that. it's a fun story!

BLUE MAGE: what the fuck is a blue mage

Story Tier: ???

[archer3-13]

dawntrails pretty good. if i had to rank all of ffxivs current expacs it would go

shadowbringers > endwalker > dawntrail > heavensward > a realm reborn > stormblood

theres just a fun peppy energy to dawntrail that serves as a good palette cleanser to the gravitas and drama of endwalkers conclusion. which is good not in the sense of endwalkers conclusion being bad [it was in fact very good], but more in the sense of injecting new life into the story, even if dawntrail does still end on a point of uncertainty in what the future holds [which is why i think people are clamouring for an overarching threat again]. you can't really begin again so to speak without some sort of sense of relief from a lot of the emotional baggage of the previous storyline, things have to "end before they begin again."

but i will fully admit this is in part because dawntrail tickles a specific part of my brain that enjoys its kind of story. its the same part of my brain that enjoys the parts of yuyuhakusho following chapter black where these overpowered world saviours are just kinda fucking around in storylines that would have been more dire had they happened earlier in time.

i think the only part where things really stumble is that the alexandria portions of the story feel like they needed more breathing room.

[sweetvanilledani]

My wol storyline ⋆ ⁺ (Sweet)

ARR

When you live in Ishgard, people tell you that home is security. And when you have overprotective adoptive parents, it’s worse. Sweet was a rather fearful miqo, but when she saw the old Louisoix in a dream, she found herself forced to leave her native land for a new adventure. She headed to Limsa Lominsa where she learned to wield the axe, made new friends and even lost some of them.

Heavensward

Having to return to her native land in order to save her country from an imminent threat, she met her childhood friends Estinien, Haurchefant and Aymeric, but not her parents. Dead from a viral disease shortly after her departure, our miqo will bury them and as long as one of her dearest friends.

Stormblood

However, this did not cut off our sweet miqo’s craving for adventure : she needed to learn more about her native country and find her biological parents. New country to explore, new encounters and especially new friends ! So this is what a family looks like ?

Shadowbringers

But the adventure ended up weighing on her shoulders. She who had an unwavering faith in the good, had to learn that life can be way more complicated than good and bad. Fortunately, she could count on an old friend, or rather rival, but why does everyone have to disappear every time ? He was a part of her heart.

Endwalker

If she can’t fight for the good, she will fight for her friends. But what do you do when you realize that in another universe, the enemy could have become your friend ? Fortunately the scions, and many others, proved to her that she was not alone in her struggles. She defeated her opponents, but this now non-existent world would persist in her heart forever.

She, who was the most fearful miqo of Ishgard, was now the greatest heroine of Eorzea. It may be time to take a break, read books with Krile and Raha, eat with the twins and Urianger, train with Estinien and Thancred. Adventure is great, but what’s next ?

Dawntrail

While she was becoming a recognized singer and having a happy lovestory with Y'shtola, the adventure knocked again at the door of our miqo. This new era was promising great adventure, funny characters and new food ! And ton of alpacas. She hates alpacas.

[tritoch]

long rambly post-endwalker wolund analysis post (so kind of a reflection on what they're going for the WoL from 6.1 onward, but with lots of oc nonsense so i'm not tagging it that way) (edit: i lied he's basically not in this it's just my notes on MSQ reread) structured around the dialogue options offered (all praise as always to xiv.quest)

right off the bat we've got a weird one with tataru asking you your future plans, and your options are more adventure, idk, or just not answering (with tataru's response implying it's because you're still emotionally processing the events of endwalker). interesting stuff that you're not allowed to explicitly say: that you want a break, that you're thinking of settling down, that you're done with adventuring or violence or war. they easily could have written in a consistent option for the WoL to be like "guess there's never a break, huh?" but the sentiment only comes up occasionally.

hits a lot of the same points as above but this is also The Moment we turn into The Adventurer and is worth flagging on that level. fun fact: the last time anyone called you the warrior of light in-game was hoary boulder, back in the post-Endwalker scion dialogue wrap-up.

No one has used the title since 6.1 began. it does show up in the abyssal fracture trial description i suppose

i think it's decently likely that in the next arc we won't be the WoL anymore but we might be The Bearer Of The Crystal. there's precedent!

anyways i find this moment very interesting because this is the one time in the patch series the warrior of light Makes A Decision. tataru suggests new possible places to adventure, and her reference to the Bounty sparks your memory of Emet-Selch and sets you going.

what i really like about this from a wol characterization perspective is that the warrior of light immediately transforms the call to new adventure into a duty. like literally by the text tataru is like "why not be a simple adventurer traveling in search of wonder?" and you think of THE BEST FRIEND OF YOUR PRIOR INCARNATION GIVING YOU A MAJOR POST-MORTEM DUTY TO HONOR BOTH HIM AND YOUR PAST INCARNATION, maybe the weightiest and lore-heaviest thing you could do. those two lines from emet are not near each other in the actual dialogue, they're from opposite ends of his speech! real "warrior of light, could you lighten up?" energy on immediately turning to that one, but it dovetails very nicely with my read that dawntrail is partly about the warrior of light trying and miserably failing to escape the demands and strictures of protagonism. you should stop feeling bound by duty. instead you should adventure, because it's your duty. GOD.

note to self: go back later and check if estinien ever calls alisaie by name. might need to check dungeon dialogue too.

pushing back lightly on the duty narrative above, the game DOES textually assert that the only reason everyone's in alzadaal's legacy in the first place is because you wanted "to see if the legends were true," or using estinien's phrasing were "chasing tales of underseas ruins." you don't get to displace the blame on this one!

here's one of those instances of the wol getting to be like "wow thought i was gonna get to chill" but i feel obliged to point out it's in a moment where everyone knows your involvement is a fait accompli. the wol never really gets to be like "I Would Like To Stop," but they LOVE giving you a wry "well, if i MUST save the world, i suppose i can" option (see: shadowbringers finale: "if you had the strength to take another step, could you do it? could you save our worlds? "what, all by myself?")

this is just a crazy y'shtola moment. "the dank cave i studied in was about as far from the bright, airy halls of academia as one could get. but it was a wondrous, magical childhood nonetheless." she's being so emotionally open with you because she trusts and cares about you i'm gonna *remembers you're not supposed to say it* cast superbolide

in keeping with the 6.X campaign to make y'shtola hashtag relateable, it's interesting that they have her read your silence as amused.

one of those fun moments where they just give you the same option dressed up in different language according to your roleplay desires. interesting to me because it elevates "the warrior of light is kind of just winging it" to the level of text, which makes sense! it's very rare that a fight in FFXIV takes place with full knowledge of what you're up against, and way more common that what wins the day is keeping alert and willing and able to change plans, as most clearly demonstrated in the ktisis finale with your improvised cooperation with emet, hyth, and venat around the issue of the aetheric convergence.

they really went the full gamut with these options (imo a strict reading of the third answer plainly implies that you DO consider zenos a friend, so imo all options are represented)

i love the early zero moments where nothing you do ever lands properly with her because she is an alien predatory intelligence in the shape of a person (who of course gradually reawakens to her full personhood)

there's the sliiiiightest defensive hint to both these options that i really love. yes, estinien, OBVIOUSLY i didn't know this. c'mon man JEEZ.

another entry for the "can't win with zero" pile, but also really interesting because this is such a fun example of the exposition and characterization blending. like, sure, the void does operate a lot on deals and agreements and contracts, befitting its nature as the place the mages of etheirys summon demons from to strike bargains with. but it works that way because everyone else DOES want something. most other voidsent have to want something, or the idea of a contract-based society wouldn't work, because a contract only works if each party has or can do something the other party wants. that's also why they're constantly fucking each other over (they want stuff really bad) and why they need a strong culture around honoring agreements (so people don't just break them, because they want stuff so bad). zero on the other hand claims to not want anything and is instead doing the insane depressed alien version of the saul goodman "put a dollar in my pocket so we have attorney-client privilege" thing, but for her revealing she's a memoriate.

skipping a lot of the alphinaud and alisaie dialogue bc it's either boring or fodder for my future "alisaie still deserves her own complete arc and here's why" post

i must've taken the second choice here bc i don't remember the first, which is cute. brb making a powerscaling tier list of scion research capabilities

the rest of the void stuff doesn't really actually have any interesting dialogue which more or less make sense because it's also not really your story

just remembered they made the leader of the radiant host a brocon for no reason. sometimes ffxiv really knocks it out of the park in terms of absolute left-field character choices

again, interesting that they don't let you NOT be interested in explicitly the golden city itself. you can be interested, skeptical of the rumors, or like "oh word?" but you can't be like ehhh.

a couple interesting things here. first, again, no option to be disinterested in adventure. you can be undecided, you can be like "idk i'd rather stay out of politics," but you can't be opposed to adventure or seeing new things, you can't at this juncture say you want to take a break (versus when you could with y'shtola in a situation where it didn't matter).

i'm also, in retrospect, very interested in the idea g'raha raises at this pretty critical and highlighted point in the plot. "what's important is to be true to yourself as you walk [the long road of life's journeys]." that's a kind of specific sentiment! like, some other easy generic sentiments the game could have slotted in: never lose hope, remember the beauty of the world, hear feel think, etc.

i would not describe FFXIV in the zodiark and hydaelyn saga as a game very concerned about being true to oneself as one walks life's long road. it's broadly in favor of it, but when you literally watch venat walk the long road of human existence, the wisdom she imparts is that life is a journey about finding yourself and your purpose, which is also about finding the strength to continue and also about finding joy even as darkness descends and also about finding light everlasting amidst deepest despair. then ultima thule's conclusions end up being about how suffering and adversity are part of life but cannot be either defeated or redeemed but must merely be accepted because they are simply part and parcel of all that life has to offer, which also includes free will and new experiences and human connection and the beauty of nature (which includes all things that are), which are good in themselves, and though joy is transient suffering is also transient. meteion basically spells it out at the end

there's not a lot of room in this particular paradigm for like, deviation from the self.

but you know who bursts in at the end of the expac to be like OKAY are we done talking HERO SHIT can you acknowledge there is MORE TO YOU THAN SAVING THE WORLD can i TALK ABOUT DESIRE AND PERSONAL PURPOSE NOW

and then of course, being true to the self ends up being a major throughline of dawntrail. it's wuk lamat's struggle (how best to be queen? in the end, by not letting herself be swayed by false desire or hidden resentment as the other claimants are, and instead to live honestly and thereby honestly connect with other people), it's also her big heroic moment (getting endless sphene to live and die as herself, thereby elevating their final battle past the realpolitik struggles of two states competing for limited aether and turning it into a space for two people from unfamiliar cultures to understand each other, recognize their similarities, and come to terms with reality). it's what koana has to do, it's what BKJJ has to do, gulool ja is doing his own little baby bildungsroman right now, new sphene is figuring out what it MEANS to be true to yourself if your purpose seems to have disappeared from beneath you...all this to say it's interesting to have g'raha set it up so explicitly here

something that really interestingly sets up dawntrail again here imo: not only are both your options here about adventure (and hey, fitting for cosmic exploration release time, that's another star trek ref up top), but neither is about the threat to eorzea. wuk lamat is very explicitly in eorzea for a political purpose: she needs you to back her claim to the throne to help her defeat zoraal ja and put an end to his policy goals before they can come to fruition, and she emphasizes that in her pitch to you. and you're like "yeah i'll come, seeing new stuff sounds awesome". you CAN'T say "i don't really want to, but i cannot abide the threat you described", which is a very common sentiment the game allows you to express in other situations! see, e.g., zenos. just a neat note here.

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

Unhinged Ranting about Zone 6

Major spoilers below, don't click if you wanna be unspoiled, this is just my personal opinion.

Alright. So I've been briefly glancing at social media now that I've cleared MSQ, and I've seen bits here and there that DT is basically repeating Endwalker (and to a degree Shadowbringers') plotline. But if I may offer my humble opinion...

They are, and they're not. Instead what Dawntrail gives us is so much fucking worse in terms of horror. I am going on the record right now that for me personally, Living Memory beats the hell out the city of Amaurot. Why do I think that?

Amaurot, we only experience at a *remove*. Yes we live through the city's destruction, but the version that's there in the First? That's Emet-Selch's creation, made out of grief/depression/rose-colored glasses view of Ancient Society. With the exception of *one* person, we do not see (as far as I know because I didn't really sidequest there so if there's anything otherwise, please let me know) actual physical legitimate people (I'll get to that in a minute hold on). Please take a look at the fucking wreckage that was Emet-Selch's thought process at that point and tell me that man had the capacity to think up an entire city of millions, each one with their own individual personality. All those people are chilling in Zodiark.

(yes yes I know gameplay mechanics and the like BEAR WITH ME HERE WE'RE GETTING TO THE POINT)

And when we do encounter those souls of the city? Those precious lives the Worst Ever Coworker trio wanted to save? They are a mess. They are a wreck. All they can do is mourn the life they had before and beg for it back. They have been steeping for millennia in guilt/regret/longing for the old days to the point that it's all they are. You could argue they're not even themselves anymore.

Living Memory is worse because we're not dealing with a 'one size fits all idealized memory of how I thought this random person of society should be'. Living Memory is you fucking staring at your beloved Aunt Remy who used to wear pink ribbons in her hair and always chugged that shitty store-brand beer at every sports game for her favorite team and couldn't pronounce your name just right so she gave your a nickname and you just rolled with it. Only it's not your Aunt Remy, it's a goddamn computer copy of her.

Even worse, it may not be the Aunt Remy you remember. Living Memory changed its inhabitants to reflect the happiest times of their lives. Aunt Remy may not be the adult you remember her as, she's probably going to be a damn sixteen year old experiencing the first time she met their favorite pop idol!!!

Pick your poison, which one is worse?

A. A rose-colored glasses one-size-fits-all construct version of your loved one.

B. The soul of your loved one so tainted by and warped by longing for the 'good times' that they're no longer who they once were.

C. A fucking exact copy of the person they used to be, who may be changed so that they reflect the happiest time of their life?

Shadowbringers and Endwalker were honestly the theory aspect. Dawntrail is the actual physical horror manifested.

┻━┻ ︵ ＼( °□° )／ ︵ ┻━┻

[sjofn-lofnsdottr]

for mercuriel: What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one?

My word, a Mercuriel ask! Thank you for that, I always feel like I don't talk about him much, but I do really like him too.

But ... brace yourself, because I suspect I'm going to wind up saying a lot more about him than I probably need to. This is going to primarily talk about Mercuriel in his WoL timeline, rather than his existence in the Dusk timeline (partly because I only have the barest of ideas as far as that goes).

Okay, so, when I was transplanting the post-apocalypse crew into Eorzea, while I was willing to completely jettison their backgrounds to fit better into FFXIV's lore, if there were ways for me to give little nods to their backgrounds that were lore friendly, I'd do them.

Mercuriel grew up in a cult before escaping and starting over, in the post-apcalypse. The Lambs of Dalamud were a thing in FFXIV. SO. Part of FFXIV Merc's secret background is that he was in the Lambs, fully on board with their "let's speed up the end of the world" agenda during the end of 1.0. Mercuriel was not in a good place in his life then.

Mercuriel had grown up a poor orphan in Ul'dah, fully immersed in the teachings of Nald'thal, where your wealth reflects how good a person you are and all that garbage. He could never quite crawl out of the hole that beginning put him in, so by the time the Lambs were recruiting, he was a pretty easy mark, for all the reasons people usually fall into cults. That it was eventually revealed to him that the goal was to accelerate the end of the world was a bonus, really, since he was ready to watch the whole thing burn by then anyway.

When Dalamud fell and it turned out the cult was wrong about everything, Mercuriel did a lot of soul searching about it. And around the time ARR begins, he returned to Ul'dah, having decided to give finding wealth and purpose and fame one more try. Because what else was he going to do? Just lay down and die without it at least being a blaze of glory? No thank you.

And also maybe he can do enough to make up for all the shit he did during the whole cult membership period of his life. Not that he cares.

So! I think of Mercuriel's arc as a sort of redemption arc for him, although he would never say he's looking for that. It more or less follows the WoL's arc, but certain things hit differently when viewed through the lens of someone who was so disillusioned with the world he was willing to try and help end it, who is now struggling his way towards a different, more hopeful mindset. All while being really annoyed it's so much work.

But of course it is, you know?

I've joked with friends that some expansions feel like they're specifically for one of my characters. Heavensward was for Dusk. Shadowbringers was for Errol. Stormblood had more for Bjalla than the rest of my guys. And Endwalker was when it was finally for Mercuriel.

He understood the type of despair and hopelessness they were dealing with far better than any of my other characters. And it was a big struggle for him to try and figure out how to articulate why he changed and why he thought that change was so worth it, as he is still unsentimental and cynical much of the time. But one thing he didn't struggle with was the question of wanting to save the world. He wanted that more than anything, and it was no longer just to make up for what he'd done when he was younger. He thought it really was worth saving, now, that life was worth protecting in spite of the less than stellar aspects of existing. And good for him, I say.

So, I think his ending in Endwalker was a good one, since he managed it! He's always going to have to fight against his more cynical instincts, but I think he's proven to himself that he can. Even better: he wants to.

Who knows how whatever post-Dawntrail stories will shake out for him. Dawntrail itself is hard to slot him into, to be honest, because there are so few points where it feels like the Warrior of Light absolutely needs to be there ... and even after everything, if Mercuriel doesn't need to be there, he's going to be off fishing or something instead.

[esperderek]

I've been replaying through Final Fantasy 14 since completing the Dawntrail MSQ, because I didn't want to change my main WoL to Hrothgal but I wanted a Hrothgal. Nearing the end of ARR patch content, and I had an observation:

It's kind of amusing how, especially in the backahalf of 14 that is ShB/EW/DT, how much it kind of relies on you to only really vaguely remember the plot beats of ARR.

There's a lot of moments, foreshadowing, dialog, exposition and supposition that are setting up elements that will lead absolutely nowhere and are dropped unceremoniously.

As a very minor example (page cut for spoilers for ARR, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker)

Like, yeah, sure buddy. I'm sure that the idiot god whose brain is currently walking around as another Ascian who ALSO is having memory issues is really going to recognize your efforts.

And then, of course, there's stuff they absolutely can't ignore because it was part of the core plot, that's how you get Pandemonium, which is an entire raid series devoted to answering the question "Why did Lahabrea act like that during ARR?"

[aotopmha]

Dawntrail final zone spoilers!

(General thematic thoughts, actual side character post planned at some point.)

I think one of the takes that has stood out among the many I've seen about Dawntrail is someone saying "just because you emotionally resonate with something doesn't mean it is good".

And this is antithetical to everything I believe about stories.

The entire point of a story is to invoke feelings within you.

A story is bad if it doesn't invoke feelings within you in a way that you feel is satisfying.

Does it make you happy, sad, angry the right way; in a way that resonates with you?

This is why "good storytelling" is such a subjective topic to me, it depends so much on your own experiences.

I've been seeing dismissiveness with equal amounts of love for what I view to be the strongest thematic thread of the story: loss and saying farewell.

It's very much leaning on Shadowbringers' and Endwalker's theming; grief is but a facet of loss and saying farewell, so it is not "new", in fact a little bit of a retread, yet still incredibly effective to me.

It is essentially further exploring the ideas of burying any negative feelings instead of processing them properly, as with Hermes and the Niburuns.

You can remove the memories, but the feelings are still there, essentially repressed and unprocessed.

The final zone (and Solution 9) is tied to the principles of the Yok Huy and their value of forgetting being equal to death.

It is tied to the principles of Hanuhanu who celebrate regardless of the difficult times they go through.

And it is tied to the stubborness of the Mamook to stay stuck in their ways and never seek another solution, which prepetuates an horrible system.

Sphene is a reflection of Wuk who has not and wishes not to act according to these lessons, as the AI copy essentially following protocol she is.

Her solution for keeping the system running is taking the lives of other worlds and her solution for combatting loss is erasing it completely, which is just not how human nature works.

(Which also aligns with the path the Ascians took and Golbez, adding to some retreading; diluting your existence by consuming souls is actually even brought up as a parallel to the 13th.)

But as we go through and reintroduce the natural way of life by granting the citizens rest, some find closure through silly moments. Some find closure through an earnest, honest talk. Some find closure through fulfilling what they want the most.

And the very simple reason why it was so effective to me personally is because I have been through a very similar "loss", even if it was a very different situation.

There has been another criticism circulating that the last zone took too little time, but to me every single one of those sections was nothing but meaningful line after meaningful line that felt honest and powerful.

(To me quality always trumps quantity and I wish this principle would have been more consistent throughout the entire story.)

And to me, this is why it hit. It felt authentic to my experience of loss in terms of the feelings on display. And that is what good writing is to me.

Something that accurately reflects the human condition in my eyes. Be it villain, hero or any type of character inbetween, if I believe it, it is good.

And the more I've thought about it, the more I've reached the conclusion that's probably all there it is to all of the extensive arguing about any piece of media.

"Do, I myself, believe these feelings in this story?"

Everything else truly comes after.

Plothole X, inconsistency Y. None of it matters if the feelings are real and effective to you.

But character could've done X! Yeah, but I think what the character did makes sense.

You can even disagree with all of the technical stuff and what is an inconsistency or plothole or whether there even is one.

In light of all of this, whenever I see someone talking about an objective way of judging stories, it always comes across as insecure.

What makes this one person the arbitrer of truth above others?

Well, in my eyes, nothing, since, well, it's all feelings and the most those guidelines can do is organise them, which is also very subjective.

[mrslittletall]

Alright, I finished the Dawntrail MSQ. And honestly, I don't get why people didn't like it. Okay, I think I get it when people don't like Wuk Lamat. Well, their loss, because Wuk Lamat feels like she was tailor made for ME. A lot of her traits are fitting perfectly with my personal Warrior of Light, Rispale. You know even before I knew anything about Wuk Lamat I decided that he gets sea sick and is a BIG foodie. And what do I get presented?! A mentee character who SHARES these traits! They were bound to be best friends. I had a lot of fun thinking about their interactions. So, I wasn't against there being two stories. I really liked the pace of the rite of succession and that we didn't dwell on it forever. I was really surprised that we got to see another shard but the idea of a FF9 that went into the future was totally up my alley and I LOVED seeing all the references and hear the music. Give me more FF9 in the continuation, PLEASE. Also I like the questions. The calamity that happened to the reflection sounded too ascian made... maybe another failed rejoining? I am sure these plot points won't just be buried. And the fights were really fun. As well as the music. The music was the best part as always ^^ But yeah, when I have to rate the stories of the expansions, then Dawntrail gets on 3 after Shadowbringers and Heavensward. I had a lot of fun with it and I will enjoy the rest of my time in Tural.

[meatball-headache]

I had a draft where I was trying to sum up all my thoughts and feelings on Dawntrail, but it was so long and rambly, and I never got back to finishing it. But I still have thoughts and feelings, and the mortifying human urge to share them, so.

Dawntrail was excellent. Wuk Lamat is a great character—the whole story is full of great characters, except for the Scions, who were really just tacked on and served basically no purpose. I forget they were ever there, and I still maintain that it should have been Estinien ("Eh, why not,") and G'raha Tia ("Of course I'll go with you!!!1!!one") instead of Alvin and Alice.

The story was excellent, the zones were exciting and varied, the dungeons and trials—well, you know I have to keep those secret, in case I do it all over again... The story was excellent—until the very, very end. The end was completely rushed and made no sense. Suddenly Erenville is a genius hacker? We're rushed into the last dungeon, an obvious knockoff of Amaurot and the Dead Ends, and after that we get about three lines where Wuk Lamat, the main character, is brushed off so you can feel like a special snowflake and have the final boss to yourself. And then after the final boss, you get like three lines again, before the credits start to roll.

Why did they bring in a Full Party's worth of Scions right before the final battle, only for that to be the only non-Trustable trial? They could've still given Wuk Lamat her cool scene midway through the fight. She was the one that deserved that fight, after all. ...and, yeah, the original lines just didn't fit the action on-screen, rerecording them is a big improvement.

I still like Endwalker the best, followed by Shadowbringers. Everything else falls into the category of Not The Best Part But Still Pretty Good.

Strayborough Deadwalk is the best dungeon in DT by a country mile and everyone who says "ugh i hate this boss" in it should get pissed on by the poor.

Also, the Arcadion and Jeuno are the best raid and alliance so far in the game, hands down. Purely content-wise, since we don't know where the story is going to end up, but, the story in the fights—"My riiiing!!!"—alone is great. They're all very fun, very active, very hectic fights with phenomenal music and wonderful voice acting. "Wait for it! Wait for it! Wait for it!" is my sexuality, I will not elaborate. Even once you learn these fights and have it down pat, it's a lot to pat down, it's always fun to do and redo until you have all of the raid gear and then keep going until you have like... I think 43 rings that I can't use. Lol. Lmao even.

Anyway, I just wanted to spit out some kind of summary on the whole Dawntrail thing. It's great, weak ending, great battle content, favorite game, will keep paying for it.

...but if they keep making hats that bunnies and big cats can't wear, I'm gonna start thinking of some strong words >_>