The start of 7.4 feels pretty clearly like a farewell to Wuk Lamat, and to a lesser extent, to Sphene's relevance to the plot despite the fact we get to take her with us to Treno.
Still, I'm gonna miss these dorks. I hope someone's busy writing the fic of them touring Tuliyollal together!
If Sphene does get to stick around for at least another patch though, then bringing over a bunch of city state leader characters to meet her would be a great way to check up on old friends. Make it happen devs…! 👀
Last but not least: I'm also excited to see what Ditzy Ascian and Demoted to Plushie get up to. They seem like a fun pair and I'm really digging how different Halmarut seems from the rest of her Ascian colleagues already!
You know what makes Aymeric and Haurchefant special?
Despite having every reason to be cold, vengeful, mean and selfish people-being bastards, living in a house they weren't born to, growing up in an environment as hostile as Ishgard, having inherent beliefs different to everyone around them- they still chose to be kind.
I think it takes something away from them if we assume they were simply born with a kinder deposition.
Haurchefant was bullied by all of Ishgard, including his step mother, for being a Greystone. Aymeric was adopted and has really low self esteem because he probably grew up hearing how ill deserving he is of everything he got by being adopted into house Borel. Yet they both made a conscious choice to be better. They wanted to treat others the way they wanted to be treated themselves. They wanted to love and invite change when Ishgard taught hate and stagnation.
This is why the warrior of light would've failed in doing everything they did if it wasn't for Haurchefant and Aymeric. How many warriors of light have tried helping Ishgard before us? Over hundreds of years of war, this revolution can't have been the only one. Yet it was during our lifetime that the stars aligned perfectly to have Haurchefant aid us and Aymeric lead us into changing Ishgard for the better and bring about peace.
Without Haurchefant, we'd have ended up in prison and possibly executed (he saves us again by taking a blow meant for us) and we wouldn't have been let into Ishgard. And without Aymeric's trust over his best friend he wouldn't have let us go to Dravania and afterwards, invite the reality shattering truth about his ancestors' actions and usher Ishgard to peace and unity.
Everyone hails the Warrior of Light as the antithesis to bad with absolute power. That, if they're there, everything is solved. But without Haurchefants and Aymerics, the Warrior of Light would be nothing and would not be able to solve half the problems they have solved.
Shiva is the most well-designed part of Final Fantasy XIV: Part One, Music
This is part one of what will (eventually) become a series of analysis posts about why Shiva, the primal of ice, is the best, most well-designed and well-written character/boss/entity within all of Final Fantasy XIV. And in today's episode, we focus on the first element that stood out to me- the very thing, in fact, that sold me on the game altogether: the music of Shiva!
(Disclaimer: I have no formal musical education, I'm just a completely average layperson. I may use terms inaccurately, and this analysis may be rather simplistic in the eyes of someone more musically knowledgeable than me. Don't take my word as gospel, because I am Just Some Guy!)
Starting off, of course, with Shiva's first appearance: The trial fight of Akh Afah Ampitheatre. When entering the fight and for the first two phases of combat, the song that plays is Footsteps in the Snow, a primarily orchestral song with choral singing and chanting vocals in Dravanian, similar to Dragonsong- these Dravanian vocals serve to beautifully illustrate the intrinsic connection that Shiva has to the dragons, and her importance to the culture of the Dravanian heretics, as well as emphasizing that Ysayle, herself the vessel for Shiva, is herself the leader of the Dravanian heretics- and just as with the primal Shiva herself, the song (And its counterpart) is just as much Ysayle's theme as it is Shiva's, as the two are, in fact, one and the same.
Musically, Footsteps in the Snow heavily features piano and string instruments, with the tempo primarily being held by the drums and cymbals; the heavy presence of the strings lends a grandiose and climactic tone to the song, while the steady percussion, evocative of a march, convey the intensity of the circumstance; this is both a major religious event for the Dravanians, due to the invocation and manifestation of Saint Shiva's image, as well as a military action- the heretics have specifically organized to strike against Ishgard, and the song is, in essence, their battle march. (In fact, it may be performed by the Dravanian heretics assembled by Lady Iceheart! This music could be entirely diegetic within the context of the fight, at least in Akh Afah- less so for its later reappearance.)
The song's construction is very deliberate: The song opens with what is almost an inhale, immediately followed by very light, ethereal chanting, which pair with the icy visuals of the fight arena to convey the image of a cold, biting winter wind. In all sections of the song, the elements progressively rise and build (And retain the distinct "wintery" feel), creating tension and anticipation; there are, of course, sections where the song drops, but never for long- and in these sections, the tension does not dissipate, but merely settles. The tension may not be building during these lulls, but it is not fading or dropping- merely sitting. The highest moments of the song also feature horns, heightening the tension at these highest moments, and there is even a notable interpolation of Hydaelyn's crystal motif with the rising harp arpeggio towards the end. Additionally, during the main body of the song (I'm sure there's a term for the segment in question that I don't know), the piano plays the same notes as the chorus of Oblivion, as well as the bridge of Return to Oblivion. These leitmotifs, present throughout the whole song, beautifully facilitate the transition into the respective later-phase songs, as well as tying the two songs together fundamentally, as they both build from the same root. Ultimately, Footsteps in the Snow serves to perfectly set up the tension of the song that comes next.
In Shiva's phase 3 within Akh Afah Ampitheatre, when she begins to cast her signature Diamond Dust attack to transition the phase, Footsteps in the Snow fades out, as the party is frozen in ice. When Shiva reappears and shatters the ice by stepping on either the first player to attack her or the player with the highest enmity (I'm not actually sure which of these it is; if you know, please tell me! I'm actually super curious), the ice will shatter, and immediately, the raucous rock anthem Oblivion will start with an opening drum kick and roaring guitar solo. I would like to take a second to highlight the utter genius of using a rock ballad for the theme of an ice boss; while historically, rock has often been associated with fire and lightning elements, it's thematically a perfect fit with the element of ice, as the harsh and unrelenting cold, sharp and deceptively sturdy form, and intrinsic association with winter, danger, pain, and even death align flawlessly with the rough intensity and power of a rock ballad like Oblivion, especially in conjunction with the raw and fierce voices of Ayumi Murata (as main vocals) and Akane Ikeya (as secondary/supporting vocals). The power, intensity, and ferocity in the women's voices also perfectly convey the tone of both the lyrics and the fight itself, beautifully demonstrating the fervent belief Ysayle has in her own righteousness, as well as her adamant and undying will to fight against the injustice and lies she sees within Ishgardian society; I firmly believe that Ysayle's characterization would be dramatically lessened without the strength of both this vocal performance and the lyrics of this song, and I think it's easy to overlook the importance of Oblivion to Ysayle Dangoulain as a character.
To highlight this importance, let's look at the lyrics of Oblivion, and how they convey Ysayle's entire backstory:
The first verse illustrates the impetus, the catalyst moment, of Ysayle's story- after her home village of Falcon's Nest was destroyed in the Seventh Umbral Calamity, Ysayle and her people attempted to flee to safety in Ishgard, only to be caught in an avalanche, with Ysayle as the only survivor. After this loss, she ultimately resorted to attempting suicide, choosing to stay in the snow and await death- "Staring at death, I take a breath, there's nothing left; now close my eyes, for one last time, and say goodbye; lying naked while the snow falls all around me, drifting closer to the edge but she won't have me." The "she" in that final lyric is Hydaelyn, who gifted Ysayle with the Echo, which in turn granted Ysayle a vision as she lay dying, and the great dragon Hraesvelgr flew overhead- a vision of Saint Shiva, the historical figure who ended the first conflict between Ishgardians and dragons with the love she shared with Hraesvelgr. Ysayle, not fully understanding the nature of this vision, interpreted it as memories of a past life, and that she herself is Shiva, reborn. "Wake up in sweat, full of regret, try to forget; these memories, lurking beneath, lost in a dream." In the wake of this vision, Ysayle becomes disillusioned with Ishgardian society, knowing the truth of the lies of the Holy See firsthand, and has lost the meaning of her life, believing it to be only pain moving forward. "Unchosen paths, a broken past, forespoken wrath; this pain won't cease, I'll find no peace, no sweet release." This line, and the following- one of my favorite song lyrics ever, by the way- illustrates Ysayle's mindset in the wake of the events that befell her. "Fragile creatures, we all learn to fear the Reaper; ever running, we are dead before we meet Her." Once again, the "her" in question is Hydaelyn- and equating Hydaelyn with the image of the grim reaper, the bringer of death, serves to illustrate Ysayle's perception of and relationship with Hydaelyn in this moment. In Ysayle's mind, Hydaelyn is "the reaper," is "death"- and death has rejected her.
The first chorus further illustrates the newfound purpose and drive Ysayle finds, and the intensity and ferocity with which she pursues this purpose: "These voices telling me let it go, (Let it all go,) I try and try but I can't say no, (Try and say no,) This endless nightmare has just begun, (Nowhere to run,) My heart is dragging me down into oblivion." Despite her efforts to let go of the trauma, the visions of the past, and the anger they instill at the injustice faced by her, the dragons, and all of Ishgard, she can't- they've consumed her completely, and are all that is left. She knows, now, that the "endless nightmare" of the Dragonsong War, and the misery of her life, have only just begun.
The bridge (Second verse?) illustrates how Ysayle found the drive and purpose to become the leader of the heretics, how she became the Lady Iceheart: "The endless lies, I've cast aside, locked them in ice; Steeled is my soul, my blood grown cold, I've gained control." Ysayle has discarded the lies of the Holy See and the history she thought she knew, "locked them in ice"- instead, she has found a purpose, and strength, in her knowledge of the truth. She's amassed her strength, her will, her conviction, to stand against the Holy See and the lies that they spread and perpetuate, and fight for what she sees as right- the truth that was revealed to her through the Echo. Additionally, her relationship with/perception of Hydaelyn has changed, and her understanding of life and death with it, illustrated with the next line: "Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper; can't defeat her, so instead I'll have to be her." No longer is she insinuating that humanity is weak and runs from the inevitable death, pain, and suffering of life; instead, she believes that all who live learn to fight against the seeming inevitability of strife, even though it is a fight they cannot win- and because she cannot win that fight, she cannot beat the Reaper, the only way to "win" is to be the reaper, to inflict strife and death of her own, and in so doing, affect change that otherwise would never come to be.
And in the final chorus, the lyrics are notably different than the first: "These voices screaming to let it go, (Never let go,) This time I'm screaming back no, no, no (Go on, say no) My mind's made up, yeah, my fear is gone (Where have you gone?) Open my eyes, now, here I come, oblivion." In spite of the hostility, the resistance, and the voices shouting and screaming that she and her fellows are wrong, Ysayle is still fighting, holding to her convictions, and refusing to back down- screaming back, no, no, no. She has no doubt in her mind, anymore, and knows her purpose, knows what she lives for- and not only is she willing to lay down her life for it, she is unafraid to do so, having faced death already, looked Her in the eye, and found a kindred spirit, issuing a challenge- that she now matches, and issues herself. Her mind is made up, her fear is gone- she charges toward her death, toward the end, knowing full well what she faces, and she does so without hesitation. "Open my eyes, now, here I come, Oblivion."
And finally, the outro- "For the last time, (I won't say goodbye,) For the last time, (I won't say goodbye,) For the last time, (I won't say goodbye,) For the last time." This repeated declaration serves as a final, ultimate statement of Ysayle's conviction- with every step, every charge, every action, she takes, it could be her last, and she knows this. She does not stand down, she does not look back, and she does not say goodbye- there is nothing behind her worth her while. Everything she values, everything she cares for, is before her, and she has yet to see it. She has nothing to say farewell to, nothing to wish well, nothing which she mourns to part with- and so, she faces the better, brighter future she sees, and yearns to bring about, and she walks free, unburdened, on toward the dawn, in the light of the crystal.
Oblivion is an absolute masterwork of a song, and it perfectly and beautifully conveys not only the backstory of Ysayle Dangoulain- in my humble opinion, the best character in all of Final Fantasy XIV- but also perfectly outlines her entire future character trajectory, by defining her purpose and the reason she fights, and showing that there is nothing that will stop her in its pursuit- casting her perfectly as the main character and hero of Heavensward. But, of course, that isn't all- there's more that can be said about Oblivion, and its parallels with the wider, overarching story of Final Fantasy XIV. But first, let's move on to the next song.
Return to Oblivion serves as the boss theme for Shiva as she appears in Eden's Verse: Refulgence. This version of Shiva is markedly different from the one summoned by Ysayle Dangoulain, instead being invoked by Ryne Waters, after hearing the story of Ysayle and Shiva from the Warrior of Light. Much like the original fight in Akh Afah Ampitheatre, Footsteps in the Snow plays during the first phase of the fight, with Return to Oblivion playing during the final phase of the fight. (A Sundering of Light plays during the transitional second phase.) The song also builds beautifully from Footsteps in the Snow, being primarily constructed from the motifs and elements of that song which Oblivion does not utilize, and as such, the three songs fit together like pieces of a puzzle. However, it is very markedly different from Oblivion in many ways, musically.
Return to Oblivion opens with vocals by Reven (Mary Kate Jiménez-Wall), rather than opening on an instrumental, like Oblivion. Additionally, where Oblivion's instrumentation was extremely heavy on the strings, Return to Oblivion puts much greater emphasis on percussion and the bassline, while also having a harsher electronic sound overall through its use of electric guitar and (I believe) synthesizers. Oblivion has the tone of a fierce battle anthem, while Return to Oblivion is much more tonally desolate, infused with a frantic, desperate energy far more fitting to the fight's context.
Where the earlier incarnation of Shiva was fought as an introduction to the story arc of Heavensward and the Dragonsong War, the version of Shiva fought in Eden's Verse: Refulgence is instead fought in the Eden storyline of Shadowbringers, in which the Warrior of Light, alongside Ryne, Thancred, Urianger, and Gaia, the new charater introduced in this storyline, attempt to restore life to the barren, aetherically stagnant environment of The Empty, by enlivening its aether through the invocation and defeat of beings made up of the pure energies of the elements. Shiva is the final primal fought in this manner, and her defeat serves as the projected final step of the process of restoring The Empty. As such, the frantic, desperate energy of Return to Oblivion is entirely in line with the tone of the story and the purpose of the fight. Let's take a look at the lyrics:
The first verse seems, at first, to align with the first verse of Oblivion, and tell the same story- "Wanting I lie, too weary to die, too lost to the ice for saving, my sins claim me, untame me; Eyes wet with tears, her song in my ears, Broken, faded- how long have I waited, To open my wings?"
However, this is not the case- but, to illustrate why, I'm going to continue on through the chorus and post-chorus. "Turn the light on, And let her in, won't you, Turn the light on (Turn the light on!) Turn the light on, You'll never win 'less you, Turn the light on (Turn the light on!) Turn the light on, The pain won't end 'till you, Turn the light on (Turn the light on!) The soul longs for oblivion, oblivion.
Falling too far for the fear to embrace me, A voice from the past screaming there is no end (No), A slave to my fate, ever doomed to repeat this, Again and again and again and again (Yeah I'm) Falling too fast, no it won't overtake me, A voice from the past echoes loud like a drum (Oh, yes) No more goodbyes, though my heart is still aching, Now open my eyes, one more time, here I come."
These lyrics instead tell the story of Ryne Waters, the Oracle of Light, a girl born with the spirit and powers of the first Oracle of Light, Minfilia Warde, who saved Norvrandt from the Flood of Light which would have consumed the world of The First entirely- and, in fact, The Empty, which the Eden storyline centers around, is the ~90% of the world that was consumed by the Flood. The "Light" and the "Her" that the lyrics refer to both mean the same thing- the same two things. The first is Minfilia, the first Oracle of Light. Earlier in the main story of Shadowbringers, Ryne had to make the decision to fully awaken her powers as the Oracle of Light, which would either result in the spirit of Minfilia subsuming her completely, or in the opposite- Ryne taking the power of the Oracle of Light for herself, consuming what remains of Minfilia in the process. The cyclical repetition that the chorus and post-chorus illustrate reference the cyclical rebirth of the Oracle of Light in young girls throughout Norvrandt, and the fate they all share, of fighting against the encroaching light that threatens to destroy the world- and dying in the process, to pass the power and curse of the Oracle of Light onto the next unlucky girl. The second meaning is Hydaelyn, the Goddess of Light, from whom the powers of the Oracle of Light stem, and who, much like the spirit of the Oracle, was forced to subsume Minfilia almost entirely to grant her the power needed to save the First.
The lyrics can be read multiple different ways- they can be read from the perspective of Ryne, talking about the power of the Oracle and her longing to be freed from her legacy, they can be read from the perspective of the spirit of the Oracle, talking about how Ryne had not fully awakened the power of the Oracle, or they can be read from the perspective of the original Minfilia, and how ultimately powerless she was and felt she was through her whole life, despite her fervent desire to help people and better the world. However, by the end of the post-chorus, it becomes very clearly the voice of Ryne, having transcended the Oracle and broken the cycle of consumption and rebirth- until, that is, she invoked the power of Shiva, channeling it within herself, and almost being consumed by it.
It must be stated- though I will make another, separate post later delving deeper into this point- that Shiva, in a great many ways, bears extreme similarity to Hydaelyn herself. Again, I'll dive more into how both incarnations of Shiva and her fight parallel amazingly with Hydaelyn, but this also informs the songs to an immense degree, and that cannot be understated.
The song finishes with the bridge (Second verse? Again I don't know) which goes: "Reason resigned, Dark seasons' design, Spring's promise of sun is honored, When winter's weighed down on us; Visions in white, Raw fury in flight, Clear as diamond, yet fragile as ice, My heart is racing." This then leads into the second chorus, an exact repetition of the first, and the second post-chorus, which goes: "Falling too far for the fear to embrace me, A voice from the past screaming there is no end (No), a slave to my fate, ever doomed to repeat this, again and again and again and again (Yeah I'm), Falling too fast, but the fall will not break me, A voice from the past echoes loud like a drum (Oh yes), No more goodbyes, I am tired of waiting, Now open my eyes, one last time, here I come."
Once again, this final verse and post-chorus tell of how Ryne overcame the cycle of rebirth and consumption that was being the Oracle of Light. However... this song is not just about Ryne. It is also about Gaia. Gaia is the Oracle of Darkness- a parallel role to Ryne as the Oracle of Light. She was first encountered as an enemy fought in the first wing of the Eden raid, in which she fought near-mindlessly with the powers of darkness as Ryne and company attempted to gain control of Eden. Later, she awakened with no memory of this, or of how she got to The Empty in the first place- and in fact, having no memory at all. She later pieced together that her name was Gaia and she was from Eulmore, though no one in Eulmore had any knowledge of her, and she stayed with the group working toward the restoration of the Empty, becoming friends with Ryne over the course of this process. However, she remained fixated on her forgotten past, feeling as though something was missing- as though a voice from her past was calling to her. And that was because it was.
After completing Eden's Verse, the second segment of the Eden storyline, the third segment of Eden's Promise occurs after Thancred and Urianger (And the rest of the Warrior of Light's companions from their home world) return to their home in the Source, and Ryne and Gaia continue working toward the restoration of the Empty on their own. After returning to join them, the Warrior of Light accompanies the pair to Eden, and on the way, the three are confronted with a newfound problem- Gaia is losing her memories of their time together. She struggles to remember who Thancred and Urianger are, needing to be reminded, and is continually and increasingly fixated on her forgotten past, and the voice she hears calling to her about it. As the Eden's Promise segment of the story unfolds, it is revealed that this voice Gaia has been hearing is, in fact, entirely real, and the voice of the Ascian Mitron- and that Gaia herself is the reincarnation of the Ascian Loghrif. In their prior incarnations, Gaia, as Logrif, and Mitron, originally a woman whose true name was Artemis, but whose current incarnation was a man, were lovers who worked toward the Rejoining together, orchestrating the Flood of Light that consumed The First, before being confronted by Ardbert and his companions, the Warriors of Light of the first. In this confrontation, Loghrif was destroyed, and Mitron was almost destroyed as well, ultimately mutating into the first Sin Eater- light-corrupted beings spawned from the aetheric corruption of the Flood- which was, in fact, Eden itself. Though the Ascian Loghrif was destroyed, a part of her soul that had been split during the Sundering still remained on the First, and was reborn as the Gaia we know- however, due to her Ascian nature, as well as the orchestrations of Mitron, she was reborn as the "Oracle of Darkness," with no memories, identity, or history on the First- only traces of Loghrif, which Mitron was able to implant within her mind, and build further upon as she worked with Ryne and company on the Eden project. At the end of Eden's Promise, as Gaia struggles against Mitron's influence, wanting to hold on to her newfound (sapphic) life with Ryne, the Warrior of Light and Ryne work together to defeat Mitron and free Gaia from his influence, and the two Oracles went on together. Sapphically.
The lyrics of Return to Oblivion are just as applicable to Gaia's story as they are to Ryne's- just as Ryne overcame the legacy of the Oracle of Light, Gaia overcame the legacy of Loghrif, taking control and agency over their lives by force and facing the future with their eyes open. In fact, it's even Gaia who saves Ryne from losing herself to Shiva's overflowing power- even the Warrior of Light and their party would have been overcome by the eternal ice age that Shiva, having lost control, was attempting to bring about, were it not for Gaia's intercession, freeing the Warrior's party from the ice they were trapped in and using her magic to slow Shiva's spellcast. The fight is Gaia's story in microcosm, just as much as it is Ryne's.
(One final note that I simply must mention, though I don't want to dive too much into it, since it doesn't tie into my previous points very much- the names Oblivion and Return to Oblivion also have immense parallels to Meteion and the Endsinger, and that's a whole other can of worms that I might eventually also make a post about. But holy shit, there's so much here, y'all, and I hope I've made you appreciate it as much as I do!)
Oblivion perfectly conveys Ysayle's entire character trajectory within its lyrics and musicality, and Return to Oblivion follows beautifully in its footsteps and does the same thing, not just for Ryne, but for Gaia as well- telling the parallel stories of two characters at the same time! The next post I make in this series will delve into the parallels within the gameplay and fight design of both instances of Shiva, and how they achieve a very similar effect, but truly, I cannot state it enough- the music of these fights is absolutely masterful in every way, and are extremely large factors as to why I will forever believe and argue that Shiva, primal of ice, is the best, most well-designed character in all of Final Fantasy XIV.
Final Fantasy FFXIV and the Nature (or Nurture) of Monsterhood
So this is something that's been banging around in my head for a while now, but I've been unable to put it down in words to a satisfactory manner lately, because I kinda have been spending the last 2-3 months repeatedly experiencing various traumas and as a results I sorta lost my ability to formulate thoughts into words.
Therefore you are going to get the more "cliff notes" version of this instead of a more organized and coherent version I had wanted to put together.
This is mostly inspired by FFXIV Stormblood, and specifically Zenos, Yotsuyu, and Fordola, who I feel are all narrative foils to each other to various degrees and directions. (Theres a certain amount of some of these relating to Zoraal Ja in Dawntrail and I'll see if I can touch on that)
i'm quite sure someone smarter and more, uhhh, good with words, could make a better essay here than I have. So the below is quite rambley and disorganized please dont kill me
FFXIV keeps asking this question, at least to my eyes, of "are people born as monsters, or are they made into monsters by the world they grow up in", and honestly I feel like they want the answer to be people are made into monsters, at least with the SB characters mentioned (DT seems to be different, but let me get there)
Lets compare:
Zenos - born into Garlean royal society, high privilege, no mother, unloving father, uncaring servants raised him, grew up not knowing how to connect to others and feeling an emptiness that he was only able to fill by seeking out greater challenges
Yotsuyu - born to a normal Doman family, orphaned and then sent to live with relatives, abused by said relatives (with heavy implication that it even involved sexual abuse at the hands of her cousin), sold into marriage to an abusive man (again, implied sexual abuse), and then sold again by him to a brothel, after which she was contacted by the Doman resistance who asked her to help kill Zenos knowing that was risking her life but they saw her as disposable, sides with the Garleans for revenge against the Domans who she felt abandoned her and abused her
Fordola - born to Ala Mhigan family, they allied with the Garleans for survival which lead to her father's death at the hands of the other Ala Mhigans, she's seen as a traitor by her own people, she chose to side with the Garleans when she hit adulthood both for survival and to make the Ala Mhigans who hurt her and her family pay, still seen as a traitor by her own people and as a "savage" by the Garleans
Obviously I'm giving a short version of these characters but lets dig into this a bit
We can really all agree that these characters do some irredeemable things during the events of Stormblood. Zenos has the blood of countless people on his hands, either directly or indirectly simply by being the acting leader of an area, Yotsuyu made sure the people of Doma suffered under her rule once she got power and took great pleasure in physically abusing anyone who stood up to her, and Fordola was more than happy to turn her blade on not only her fellow Ala Mhigans but also on the soldier under her command, ultimately seeing them as disposable.
At the end of Stormblood main patch, Lyse notes that "even Zenos was once an innocent babe", and I think that's important. It was deliberate, to note that the character who is positioned as perhaps the most monstrous of them all was also at one point a completely innocent child who had the potential to grow up a happy and healthy person. We know why he didn't, it's partially in the supplementary side story "The Hunt Begins" where we are told about the physical and emotional abuse he underwent as a child, and how none of the servants raising him even cared about his well being at all, so its easy to see how that could mess someone up. Now "nurture" could result in someone having a monstrous nature.
This is, in my opinion, best shown with Yotsuyu and Fordola, who also work really well as counters to each other. While Fordola wasn't abused to the same degree as Yotsuyu, she still had a difficult life, she still had a lot of similar "needing to fight to survive" type of mentality, and you can see how both of them would jump at the chance to take revenge on the people who hurt them. Especially since in Yotsuyu's case it was all people who should have been protecting her, remember, her own family used and abused her, and even when the resistance found her they left her to rot in a brothel and said "she's expendable if Zenos kills her its fine as long as the mission succeeds".
side note, I've seen people whine about how "oohhh waaaahhh why did they make Yotsuyu a victim of sexual abuse just because she'e evil! why note just let her be evil and not be a victim" and like, you are missing the fucking point my dude, the point is that the abuse she suffered is why she wants to hurt people back, I'm not going to argue if its a good reason ro bad or whatever, shes a fictional character, her purpose in the story is to play a role in the narrative
So we have Fordola who has allied with the invader and conquerors as an attempt to survive and get revenge on people who hurt her, and we have Yotsuyu who has allied with the invaders and conquerors in an attempt to survive and get revenge on the people who hurt her
They both hurt and kill a lot of people and generally cause a lot of suffering, but what happens to them afterwards is what's important
Fordola, after being defeated, decides she's had enough, she cannot forgive herself, at least not fully, but she wants to try and make amends. She understands that the people she hurt may never forgive her, and she makes peace with that. I think on some level she wants to earn something back, she's even willing to be put to death if it will bring peace to the people of Ala Mhigo.
Compare this with Yotsuyu, who even after her stint as Tsuyu and getting to see what a life could be like had she never experienced The Horrors, and a potential life where she was if not forgiven, at least allowed to live in peace, she decides that she doesn't want forgiveness, not for herself, and not from anyone. This is why despite temporarily returning to her mortal form during the Tsukuyomi fight, she turns back into Tsukuyomi and you are forced to defeat her. Which, remember, Asahi shoots her and she uses the last of her strength to kill him. Then she dies.
Fordola and Yotsuyu both show the "monster by nurture" sort of theme, they both grew up experiencing great hardships, and overcame them eventually by siding with the side of the abusers (Garleans) and using that power to hurt others. However, Fordola had her reckoning, and ultimately determined that a freed Ala Mhigo was more important, and that her own happiness was secondary, she decided to give up that part of her hate and anger (although dont get me wrong she's definitely still got a lot of hate and anger for herself, the situation, and the garleans), Yotsuyu meanwhile was unable/unwilling to give it up. And that's the point! The point is "look at these two women, see how they both experience terrible things, use that as a ignition to do terrible things of their own, but then they each make a different choice when faced with the consequences of their actions"
Like, I don't know if they're necessarily foils for each other, but the choice to make them follow almost the same character development path and then diverge was deliberate.
Tossing back to Zenos here, I don't think he is a direct line to be drawn with either of the two women, his situation while similar (heavy childhood abuse and/or trauma) does end up bringing him in a different direction, both because of his royal upbringing meaning that he jsut kinda had a different path, and because his role in the narrative is to be a foil for the Warrior of Light. But I think the point of him also having that same sort of terrible abusive upbringing despite growing up as the Crown Prince of Garlemald was deliberate! Like they didn't have to do that, they could have just said "nah he was evil and fucked in the head from birth" but instead they said "well his mom died and his dad didn't love him bc his dad is an ass, and all the servants that raised him didn't care about him and engaged in state/father sanctioned physical child abuse culminating in one of his teacher trying to kill him just because he managed to figure out a trick to doing a special sword technique"
TBH I think there's a whole level here of Zenos being a gifted child and uniquely brilliant in both academics and athletics, and that no matter how smart a child is their success will ultimately be determined by how much love they are given by the people around them, but again, I'm not really able to do words anymore at the moment. But I will wrap this point into Zoraal Ja in a bit if you wait a moment.
So we have Fordola who uses her pain as an excuse to hurt others, but ultimately renounces it and tries to make amends, Yotsuyu who is incapable/unwilling to try and change, and then Zenos who really has no reason to change.
These three characters are really dancing around each other imo, there's stuff here, it relates to the way our world can shape us into the worst possible version of ourselves even in a way against our will. Sometimes we make choices simply to survive, and sometimes those choices are ones that would make someone call you "traitor, murderer, monster"
Now, Zoraal Ja is interesting to me, and honestly he is partially why I have this whole thing. I can certainly say that there are other characters in FFXIV that the story does stuff with in interesting ways, but Zenos/Yotsuyu/Fordola are the three I see this "Monster by Nature or Nurture" thing most. And then we have Zoraal Ja.
FFXIV really, really, wants to say "people are not born monsters, but can become monsters by the forces of the world around them and the choices they need to make to survive in that world" but when we got to Zoraal Ja they really tried to say "except this guy, he's just evil from birth".
After all, we're told how he's so cruel, and so nasty, and that he's just a warmonger with no heart.
Except. Except I think they fail at that. I think there was a version of Dawntrail where Zoraal Ja was a different person, one where he was in fact "monster by nature". Let me explain. We are told that he wants to start a war with the other nations. And we are kinda led that its "just because", but they do tell us why. He wants to start a war because he feels his people have grown soft, they only know peace and prosperity and so they don't appreciate it. Heck! We can see it with the Pelupelu, as some of the people there who support him think that "war will be good for business", they don't even think for a moment about the cost of life. In that way there are an unknown number of Turali civilians with that same sort of mindset, that is certainly not a peaceful one! It could be argued that Zoraal Ja's idea, while misguided, makes sense given he walks around a peaceful town and hears people saying things like that.
There's also a rather subtle implication that the idea might not have originally been his, but instead been his advisor's. Some of the framing of cutscenes and the way the advisor acts really made it seem like there was some sort of dropped "Zoraal Ja's evil advisor" subplot, but we really won't ever know unless they say something. Feels like something cut pretty early on in development.
A few other things to note about Zoraal Ja, when you fight him at Everkeep and he goes into turbo mode and slashes away at the phantoms of his siblings and father, when he sees the vision of his son, he hesitates. Its very subtle, but he has to tighten his grip on his weapon, he is absolutely prepared to kill his son, but I think he was not fully 100% in it. Again, I don't know, but this kinda pushes back against the narrative that Dawntrail wants to have which implies a sort of "Zoraal Ja was always an evil asshole". Additionally, we know he is the "miracle child", and he was very high expectations of him as he is the only child of a Blessed Sibling. We know what Blessed Siblings represent to the Mamool Ja, and we know therefore what he might represent to them. The sorts of pressures put on him to succeed and exceed his father.
Here's where I tie this part back to Zenos in a way, both of them were raised without mothers. Zenos' mother was dead when he was young, and no mother of Zoraal Ja is ever mentioned so we can presume either her death or Bakool Ja Ja did parthenogenesis, I dunno. We know that both are the first/only children of their respective parents, and both have a lot of pressure/expectations heaped on top of them. And we know the types of messed up that can happen to a kid when you dump a ton of expectations and pressure on them to be some sort of "perfect child"
Additionally, while there's not a lot of proof for this part, I have heard quite a few people comment that its highly likely Bakool Ja Ja was a rather absent father. We know he was ruling a massive country, and that does not leave a lot of time for childrearing, and we know that Wuk Lamat was more or less raised by her nursemaid. So it stands to reason that Zoraal Ja might have been unintentionally neglected by his father.
The Zoraal Ja tangent got away from me, and i don't really have a strong point here other than I think its interesting that while FFXIV likes to say "monster by nurture" they really want it to be "monster by nature" with Zoraal Ja, but imo they leave too many tidbits of potential that Zoraal Ja too was once an innocent babe.
Anyways, if you read this far, uhhh, congrats I guess. Maybe stand up and stretch. I honestly probably didnt even get to all the stuff I had in mind. Don't put too much stock into what I've said here, this really is just Tables rambles for a while. And don't you worry, I am fixing my "talks too much" problem, so like, you will not be hearing from me anytime soon lol.
If this ramble entertained you, great. if you want to put my head on a spike, sure. If you want to write your own, far better ramble, please do. Like I mentioned, this is something I've been bouncing around my head for a while and I've given up any hope of ever turning it into a proper write-up
So Yoshida confirmed in a recent interview that Zero’s appearance is based on Vampire Hunter D. Of course anyone remotely familiar with D had already figured that out, the similarities are so strong.
But I wonder how many realize that Zero’s insistence on transactional relationships is also just like D. I haven’t seen anyone talk about it so far. (And to be fair, I don’t know about D in the movies. I haven’t watched them. But I have read around 20 of the books.) In the books, D will not take on any job or lift a finger until he has been paid. He always maintains a strict business relationship with everyone he interacts with. But once you’ve paid him, he will do anything to achieve the purpose he was hired for. If you can convince him “this is necessary to reach the goal” then he’ll do it.
And as the books go on, you do get to see him begin to go out of his way to help less fortunate people by taking much less in payment than he normally would but still doing everything he can to get the job done. He still acts very outwardly cold and professional, but his actions begin to show he does actually care about helping people.
I see all this as being very similar to Zero, who chooses to maintain her own domain where other denizens of the void can get away from the violence. She does not seem very concerned about their lives, but she allows them to benefit from her presence and her strength while continuing to play the loner. Very much like D with the people who end up following him around.
After all, both Zero and D live in a harsh and deadly world. I look forward to seeing if Zero proves to be as superior to the rest of her world as D is and finding out more about the connections she seems to have with the key players in her world’s destruction.
"Haurchefant puts a lot into his belief towards chivalry, and that a knight lives to serve and protect. It is the way he lives his life, and what standard he holds himself to. So, he often reacts before thinking when it comes to protecting those he cares for..."
Some interesting analysis tying Haurchefant’s self-sacrificing tendencies to his upbringing and Halonic religion.
Some scattered thoughts on Krile in the 7.4 MSQ! Spoilers for that, obviously.
Goodness there's a lot more custom animations in the cutscenes lately. And very worthwhile ones too; that Miayli and Krile are able to touch and hug each other does so much to heighten the emotion of their scenes together!
I don't usually like dragging on base 7.0, but one thing this patch (and especially the roleplay duty!) really did do better was finally selling me on the arc of Krile feeling insecure about her combat abilities but now having come into her own as an equal to the other Scions.
I still think she ought to be a DPS/Healer in trusts though. We need more flex characters! What will we do once we inevitably leave Sphene behind?
It was also neat to see that my read on Krile that she has a lot of "what if my life had been different? would I have been happier if I'd been able to live with my parents?" angst that she keeps hidden under that smile was very correct.
What really caught my attention, though, is that the game keeps placing Krile in a role slightly to the left of the WoL. She's now the only other prominent character with the Echo left, she's always had a strong connection to Hydaelyn, and now apparently she's also the heir to the people entrusted with implied-to-be-Azem's key. Is the last one meant to explain the first two?
Actually, come to think of it, she may literally be the Speaker who used the Key reincarnated again. Kind of a long shot theory, but at the very least she's probably a Milalla > Milalla reincarnation, since in 7.0 she says Y'shtola hasn't noticed her soul being thinner than those of the Source.
(I don't have a screenshot of the 7.0 bit, but it's side dialog at the end of the quest "Pick up the Pieces".)
One thing I was a little disappointed in was that in a patch almost wholly focused on Krile, her unique Echo never comes up. It's still a bit weird to me how much DT has downplayed that. Maybe there's more on that in the new short story for her? (I'm looking forward to reading it soon.)
Anyway, wild red-string theorizing aside, I very much enjoyed all the Krile focus, even if it didn't move the plot forward a whole lot! She's one of my favorite Scions, I'm so glad she chose to stay with us. 💛
I suppose now is as good a time as any to talk about the not-White elephant in the room: why does Lyse have brown skin in my WoL!Fordola AU?
While most of the changes in that AU flow from the divergence point that "Krile was the reincarnation of Azem rather than Meteor," Lyse's appearance doesn't have anything to do with that, obviously!
So yeah, cards on the table: The primary reason she looks like that is because canon Lyse being so pale-skinned has always sat wrong with me. I tend to judge characters more by their written personality than their visuals (see also: the silly missing pants on Fordola's Skulls uniform, which I'll probably also change haha). And the game's writing repeatedly underlines that Lyse is meant to look like an average Ala Mhigan Highlander, shhh please ignore her actual model.
And yeah, there's a conversation that could be had about how people remember Ala Mhigo as having a mainly darker-skinned population, even though several other characters like Minfilia, Erik (MNK quests), and Raulf (CUL quests) are actually fair-skinned. It's a nation-state that got started as a hodgepodge of many different Hyur clans that were all fleeing the Fifth Calamity, after all.
There's just one problem with that justification, for Lyse specifically…
It's that her father looks like this!
And at the end of the day, Lyse's function in the narrative is to be the face, the poster girl, the representation of Ala Mhigo to the players. So it's particularly ironic when her character design looks more at home in Sharlayan or Gridania (which both initially rejected her) than with her fellow countrymen.
Truly delving into the nuances of canon Lyse's appearance is a conversation that's out of my lane, given that I am White myself. But even with my own limited understanding, I've noticed that it often results in her Stormblood arc being seen as a "White savior/outsider" narrative, rather than the story of a refugee who fled her homeland as a child who struggles and ultimately succeeds at reconnecting with her heritage as an adult. And while there are certainly valuable stories that can be told about characters who have "passing privilege" and don't immediately clock as the discriminated/oppressed minority they are part of… or of adopted characters who do not resemble their parents… that's not the story being told in Stormblood. We never get lines about Lyse's appearance being unusual or her trying to navigate that distinction - again, instead we get plenty of lines to the contrary, that affirm that she's meant to visually remind people of her father.
When playing through Stormblood for the first time, it felt to me that perhaps the writers intended to present a typical Ala Mhigan-appearing character, but either because of existing character design inertia (Yda's model being a White-looking Midlander since 1.0) or because racist/colorist marketers didn't want the poster girl of the expansion to not be pale (or probably both, sigh), she ended up in this oddball Schrödinger's character of color state.
By changing that in my AU, I wanted to further emphasize that Lyse is not seen as an outsider by other Ala Mhigans - especially in comparison to Fordola's uneasy status. That's the major reason.
As for a few more scattered minor reasons…
-This is incredibly silly, but self-insert ships are kind of a squick for me, and IRL I look quite similar to canon Lyse! Adding an extra level of distance by changing her appearance makes it feel less weird/more fun for me to write about her, heh.
-There's this awful trend in fandom spaces to ignore mixed race canon ships in favor of shipping two white characters together, or of downplaying/lightening the character of color's skin. As a Fordolyse shipper (as opposed to the more "canon" Arenvald/Fordola), I want to avoid contributing to this trend where I can.
-Gosh dang it we need more variety in the Scions! Enough with the pale hair and skin combo already it's so boring!! :P
Why this specific look?
Honestly? It's because when I first got my hands on NPC-altering mods, "hey what if I give Lyse her dad's skin tone" was one of the first things I tried just to test the mod out… and it kind of stuck, haha. That's just how Lyse looks by default for my game now, and I occasionally forget to turn it off!
Of course, with that working… why stop there? And indeed, literally the next thing I tried was seeing if I could turn Lyse into a Highlander that had some actual muscle on her arms. Unfortunately, that didn't go so well - it's beyond my (still very beginner level) modding ability to put Lyse's custom Midlander face on a Highlander body. And even if I did, Highlanders having different emote animations means some cutscenes would break or have her out of frame. Boo.
In theory, there's still more I could do, though. I remember once stumbling upon a picture of a gorgeous Lyse that had darker hair/eyes and her facial features slightly altered to be more SWANA-typical. And I could at least do the hair/eyes part of that… but at that point, would she still read as Lyse to people running across my gposes out of context? Or does she now look like an OC?
Indeed, there's yet another whole discussion that could be had about the "average Ala Mhigan" combination of straight blonde hair + blue eyes + brown skin also potentially being an unfortunate fantasy trope. But fixing that wouldn't just require changing Lyse, it would involve redesigning a lot more NPCs. And that's a hefty undertaking I'm not particularly interested in doing!
Still, if readers really want to see Lyse with dark brown hair and eyes… I might still switch to that! Heck, it's not like any of this is set in stone - this is all just a fun AU that I'm plenty open to changing, and I welcome any criticism or advice!
