i love the frequent recurring canon fact of aymeric "mr diplomatic politician guy who has to remain composed" de borel just staring and smiling at the wol in awe and talking about them all the time, to the point that it is not even remotely subtle to anyone alive with eyes
like ok loverboy can you at least try to be a bit more subtle about it (do not. it is very enjoyable to watch. keep it up
edit: i have added more simply for the love of the game
with the recent in from the cold chapter I'm posting the link to the WoL comics on AO3 now because it's starting to become very serial despite my initial intentions.
have fun reading. kudos appreciated and comments doubly so.
Oh you thought I would be your golden retriever boyfriend? Sorry I’m your husky boyfriend. AWOWOOOOOROTOTOOOOOOAUAUAUAUAUAUAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAWAWAEAEAEAEAWAWAWAWAWAAAAAAAAA
Reminder, if you ever pay someone for a commission on Paypal (NSFW OR NOT) you SHUT THE FUCK UP in any text box it gives you.
(No this does not mean try to be a snarky comedian and say it was "bomb materials" or "fuck u" or whatever. Don't play with people's livelihoods, just shut the fuck up and don't type anything at all, it's not that hard.)
the way he doesn't even complain or display any kind of emotion that a child in his situation should display. fucked up (good stuff)
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the waking sands moment is probably my personal fav in ARR. it pulls the rug from under your feet and knocks the air out of your chest, what the HELL, what do, where go?? and the writers be like "oh you liked this feeling? please look forward to post ARR 🙂"
i need to remind y'all about a removed quest in which you go pray to the gods after the carnage, and the gods are silent. BRING THIS PEAK BACK
it's rather undercommunicated that not only the ascians are responsible for making the scions' location known to the empire, but they TELEPORT the garleans into the Waking Sands, while the public outside only hears the sudden disturbing noises
truly a "no good deed goes unpunished" moment, it drives home how VISIBLE you've become as a hero, and what it means for everyone around you. but this's only the beginning 🔥\o/🔥
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the framing omg. THE SAVIOR HATH COME
so this child just marched in with the look of someone who's gonna save the day. to prove that the Scions yet live we need to slay Garuda. to slay Garuda we need an airship, Cid has an airship, we don't know where the airship is. okay let's go find it, how hard could that be?
btw shouldn't we try to save Minfilia and Tataru first? they're probably being tortured as we speak, but ah well.
eat healthy if you want Haurche to be proud of you
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it's a bit embarrassing how tone-breakingly giddy i get instead of being somber and processing the tragedy in the Waking Sands because literally 5 minutes of gameplay separate that and GOING TO COERTHAS WHHEEEEEEEEE WAHOOOOOOO HAURCHE CATCH MEEEEE-
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can't say anything funny here, this pulled me out of the game world and reminded me of the world i have to live in. being too real here my friend
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when Francel gets accused of heresy, he seeks help from the House Fortemps. we get introduced to Haurchefant while carrying Francel's letter, he's a sort of a bridge between us. this might not mean much if you don't know their backstory, but me it hits right in the meowmeow
highly recommend reading the official short story "Vows Unbroken"
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everyone slays bc they share the face type with Vivi, i don't make the rules. no i literally can't control this, but hey, good for them
though given the wol's celebrity status it's safe to assume that he starts to influence people around the world. fashion's his profession. Vivi propagates the goth vibes wherever he goes
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"have need of YOU", you say? hmmmmmm don't mind if i do
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i don't need new regions or reflections, just give me more reasons to come back here. the visuals, the theme, the vibes. how's this so peak
"every game did the snowy areas back then because the game of thrones was popular" so what. this flavor is still unparalleled. we can absolutely do WITHOUT killing characters left and right, that's cringe, but the high fantasy has to come back
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says he who stands in one place all day snuggling up to the fire
he's so bossy and annoying already and it only gets worse. you can do a drinking game for every time he puts his hubris on display. but your body probably wouldn't appreciate so much alcohol
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gays homosexual GAYYYYYYSS
with the previous encounter fresh in my mind i can read this in only one context
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has someone done a body counter per expac? literally count the number of corpses that we interact with. i think ARR might be the uncontested winner
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subtle parallel of Haurche and Exarch: shortly after meeting them we end up in an actual combat scenario, fighting side by side
Haurche entering the battle on his chocobo like a true knight on his noble steed 😭 you'll forever be famous to me
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born to sit in Haurchefant's lap, forced to
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Alphinaud.....
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we totally didn't have to visit Coerthas mid ARR, but i'm so glad we did. it's introduced, it takes a step back in the room of our memory when we move on, and when we return, it offers the comfort of familiarity.
and i love that things aren't handed out to us. the initial cold welcome allows for a real sense of progress. we did this and that and earned the trust of at least a few individuals. does this feel important? not yet. but it's so fun to look back on.
when the Bloody Banquet turns the entire world against us (this can't be done for mmo reasons, but i would've loved if the npcs became aggro even in cities), the only place that can be our refuge is the one that used to be least friendly. but it feels natural, it feels earned.
also, as heartless as it sounds (but a writer has to be heartless) i love that Haurche appears so early on. solid, proper pacing. had he been introduced somewhere in HW, i probably wouldn't have cared about him so much, and about Edmont and others that are affected by his- yknow.
he legit comes off as the only sane and reasonable guy in this entire snowy wasteland, and hey, he has a squadron of lightly dressed men working out right in front of his desk. environmental storytelling! i've been told everything that i need to know :>
so you're going back to the main plot thinking "well that was a wild detour, fuck all those fanatics- except you Haurchefant and your friends, you're cool" and that's exactly the amount of info you need to carry with you when HW begins
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HW when it stops snowing and you find a renewed appreciation for the bright sunny day 🤝 ShB when the wicked white's gone and you find a renewed appreciation for the night sky
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i've been thinking about Alphinaud's sense of humor. has he ever made a joke? i mean other than the joke that he makes out of himself in ARR
there's often room for interpretation, but in his particular case i can't read this as anything but deadpan serious. he means it. has he ever done friendly teasing that wasn't cringe? Alisaie got 200% of the snark that was meant for two people
i love my sassy daughter, no one else roasts like her
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yeah the wine and cheese arc is okay. the Coerthas detour is awesome actually. but this. this part lowkey feels like an insult to your time
i don't mind paying homage to the mmo tropes a la "get 10 rat asses", when the timing is appropriate and the characterization is good, but ARR has way too many of these
should those crystal-fetching quests before Garuda be cut? idk. but i DO wonder how did they get written in the first place, how did someone think that adding Somehow Even More Frustration to the mix is a good idea.
like we've JUST returned from a massive detour. can we not. nothing's wrong with feeling frustration by design, still i think a new reader/player is the wrong kind of audience to test with such an emotion evoked so frequently in ARR. this's guaranteed to drive some people away
are these setbacks realistic? yes. this could happen. still, as a writer, it's your choice to put this detour in this particular spot. exploring the isles of Umbra would've been fun in a different frame. then we end up chasing SPRIGGANS knowing this's NOT the time for the silly.
it's so strange to observe through the lens of ShB that perfected the rollercoaster formula, the whiplash. what feels wrong and tone-deaf in ARR somehow Just Works in ShB (e.g. coinpurse cracking, strip club, frolicking with the fae)
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Cid's precious. he says thanks for everything just incase this's our last chance to talk
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yes, mother, i shall not only peer into the heart of darkness, but insert my dick into its ass 🖤 *indignated emet-selch noises in the background*
throwback time! Hydaelyn used to look like this. this's real and still available on the official ARR site
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imagine experiencing this through Exarch's eyes. "so this's how it all started, your friendship the bonds of which persisted through centuries and allowed me to create a better timeline?!" he'd go absolutely mental. this would be one of his fav moments
imagine saying "i owe you my life" and actually following up on that. big time. the Ironworks are so- *checks notes* goated, as they say nowadays
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Cid's plans always make so much sense. they're simple and brilliant. and i'm feeling especially convinced and inclined to keep listening and agree with everything said by an owner of such a body
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he gives voice to much of the playerbase. get behind me Urianger, they'll be answering to me for that
this's just another tuesday for him btw. he went around doomposting in 1.0 and diverted the empire's attention from the civilians this way as the garleans fruitlessly tried to stop him
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finally Alphinaud's being useful- ah, yes, right, manservant. that's right. yes. manservant to artist assistant pipeline
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her name's Maggie and she's one of the best ARR characters
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they do a full-blown sailor moon speech at Livia while they outnumber her 2 to 1, then run away when her reinforcements arrive (that was a tactical repositioning, still funny)
(tumblr auto labeled Yda's thighs as mature content, I had to paint over the screenshot below)
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he says this about Thancred, but this brims with dramatic irony to me
Hitting the image-per-post limit again. I'll link part 3 here once it's available. As of now I had to pause my livetweets due to Yet Another Twitter Apocalypse, my plans for this playthrough went out of the window, but, as this panic/exodus is nothing new, if I had to guess I'll be able to continue once people inevitably come back to twt some days or weeks later.
