#emet-selch is SUCH a good character ... you cannot fight me when i say he is literally the best antagonist | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

therem-harth · 2 years

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tell me about the blorbos from your game c:

Hello! I will tell you about the blorbos from my game c: (the game is, of course, Final Fantasy XIV)

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most) Oof, a tough one. I'd say it's a split between Emet-Selch and Venat? Yes yes, I'm not original here, but their stories just are incorporated in literally everything. Both of them have been here since the very beginning and have been forced to survive in their different ways so looking at the story through their lens literally never gets boring. Like oh, Venat saw me get to Ul'dah here wow I was so small and dumb back then. How did she feel about me finding out Hydaelin is a primal? Losing faith in her? Thinking I was tempered? And for Emet-Selch it's the same, the story is so rich - he lost both of his best friends but then he met me on the first and thought that maybe, just maybe, it didn't have to all end in tragedy and then it did, but then he remembered, and by the time I called him back in Ultima Thule he must have been feeling so much. This is also why FFXIV storytelling is so impactful - you cannot, could not tell a story this deeply with just two hours on a screen. I'm nearing 1000 hours in the game and I am so deeply connected to it by now...

(honorary mention here is Hythlodaeus because I care him)

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

Alphinaud? Perhaps? He's like the pretentious younger brother who you can't help but love because he means well. The dichotomy between him being a diplomatic leader of worldly influence and him being a child who is afraid of ghosts and can't swim is... good (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b59TR8pShQ0)

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

...Ravana? Quite possibly the chillest primal if you don't count Susano who's fight is awesome yes yes but Ravana did it first. Just go at it for fun baybee. Perhaps also Lucia (at this pt i'm going through unending journey because there are So Many characters and I don't remember them all)

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

Erenville!!!! Though I mean I think he is not really obscure because even though he appears in like 3 scenes the people (me) love him. He is also the black bunny boy who you reblogged from me some time ago, sis. I loved him from the first moment I saw him but I truly fell in love with him when we trailed him disguised as frogs and he caught us because we didn't act properly and he's kind of a biologist. But let us listen in anyways. What a lad.

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

see I would love to put Emet-Selch here but as I stated before he created a fascist empire for shits and giggles so I don't think that's too problematic... but, alas, he is probably the most popular ffxiv character.... ....Magnai. He is utterly pathetic and I love that in a man.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

Hien?? Not because I wish him ill but because he is my favorite from Stormblood and has this clear and steady conviction that if I saw him overcome great difficulties I think I'd get quite inspired. Other than that, I love putting Azem through the mill because of the h/c potential with Hades n Hythlo.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell) Hm. I assume this means I hate them - there's plenty of chars to hate though most also have very human reasonings for their actions. If I had to pick, hm, Ilberd? He was just a tad too smug. :D

(honorary mention of Zenos because I am Afraid that he'll raise from the grave the uh, second? third? time and his story will be underwhelming again. stay dead bitch <3) Conclusion: there are so many characters. And I love them all. Lord Hien help me.

#personal #i shall not tag this as ff bc i don't want it to appear in the tag lol #but i will tag this as #ew spoilers

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thefreelanceangel · 3 years

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Shadowbringers Is Finally Ended

With Patch 5.55 and the official end of the Shadowbringers story, setting up now for Endwalker in November, there are now a few months ahead to grind gear, finish content and reflect on the most recent expansion.

And, without any hyperbole, I can say definitively that I have never in my life been as impressed with a game's writing as I have that of Shadowbringers, both the original expansion and a lot of the patch content. I have... thoughts.

I'm a bit of an outlier; I skipped Stormblood (oops) and went straight from completing Heavensward (which greatly impressed me at the time and still does) into Shadowbringers because I wanted to get a max level character already.

Within the first few cutscenes of Shadowbringers, I was absolutely hooked.

First, let me just say that "monstrous angels" is 100% My Thing. I ADORE the reinterpretation of the standard "Renaissance art angelic figures" into something closer to incomprehensible beings taking on twisted, terrifying appearances. The human mind is a finite thing and comprehending an angel would be as difficult as comprehending infinity; these are things so alien to our experience that assuming they'd be easy to grasp and familiar feels disingenuous to me.

So the sin-eaters and the Lightwardens? SLAP.

Also, the intent behind the usage of "Light" in Shadowbringers was deliberate and purposeful. Our Lord and Savior, Yoshi-P, stated this clearly in his Forbes interview.

"The inception of this idea was very simple: in recent fantasy works, the perception that light equates to good and dark equates to evil is very set in stone, we wanted to shake this up a bit.

"Until this point in Final Fantasy XIV, our players have been Warriors of Light: the hero. However, with Shadowbringers, we leave the Source and embark on a journey to the First, and through this I want our players to discover the truth of the world, as well as think about the real nature of light and dark. That is the theme of Shadowbringers.

"In any case, a light too strong could potentially become evil. Darkness and night are also necessary for the world to maintain its balance; that's the kind of theme we will be shedding light on."

And the themes in Shadowbringers had such an amazing resonance that they were both painfully clear and masterfully executed. Not only was the theme of "balance" clearly executed in the "returning Darkness to a world flooded by Light" goal, but the desire for players to "think about the real nature of light and dark" showed in a multitude of ways.

The Warriors of Light (who we met as the Warriors of Darkness in Heavensward) are, in their home world, reviled. They directly caused the Flood which nearly destroyed their home and although they were able to save it with personal sacrifice, the populace at large is unaware of that sacrifice. The motives behind what the Warriors did is essentially lost to history; all that remains is the perception of their actions and the results thereof.

Motives, however, which you (player and WoL) are privy to.

"At long last, you see. To save our world, we gave our lives. We were just adventurers trying to make our way. An odd job here, a favor there—we never aspired to be Warriors of Light. But word of our deeds spread, and soon people were calling us heroes. They placed their hopes and dreams on our shoulders and bid us fight for all that was good and right. We fought and we fought and we fought...until there was no one left to fight. We won...and now our world is being erased from existence. We did everything right, everything that was asked of us, and still—still it came to this! You of all people should understand! We cannot—we will not falter. We brought our world to the brink of destruction, and now we must save it."

You had that fight with the Warriors of Darkness. You heard Ardbert explain exactly what happened, how they came to the point where they faced off against you, and you saw what happened when they were given the choice to hold back the Flood. And you were there when the one favor Ardbert asked was for the Warriors of Darkness to be taken home.

You see how the First remembers them and it's stark contrast to the heroes you met who were fighting desperately to save people who now spit on their names. History quite clearly has two sides and which you believe is dependent entirely on what information you have.

This becomes even more of a clear theme when you meet Emet-Selch and learn more about the Calamity which led to the entire Zodiark/Hydaelyn duality. Here, your previous experiences with Ascians has painted them solely as "villains." They are established enemies, manipulating events and people in order to attain goals which, to you, are nothing but Calamities.

And yet, as you learn more about the original Source and the Amaurotines that once lived on it, these goals are painted in an entirely new light. Instead of merely seeking to wipe out "the world" for no apparent reason or, at best guess, greater power for their deity Zodiark, the Ascians were striving to repair the damage done by the original Sundering. They, in a manner of speaking, were doing what the Warriors of Darkness were. What you, the Warrior of Light, have been doing. They were trying to restore what was lost.

Which leads into another of Shadowbringers' major themes: grief and loss.

The earliest touches of this are in Alisaie's questlines where you learn about what happens to people tainted by the Light. Families are destroyed, people are transmuted into sin-eaters and those who avoid that fate must stand by and watch as their loved ones fall to something far worse than death. "A Purchase of Fruit" shows you exactly what the end result is while also highlighting something very specific: with no hope of removing the Light's taint, knowing that all that awaits the tainted is a painful transmutation and existence as a sin-eater, those untainted make the best they can of those last days and end the tainted individual's pain before it begins.

Grief, yes. Loss? Absolutely. And yet, this is a loving, compassionate thing that those in Amh Araeng are doing. They face their own grief and loss. Rather than refusing to accept the actuality of their circumstances or refuse to weigh themselves down with taking a decisive action, they make the choice to face their grief and loss directly, even willingly taking on the guilt of their actions rather than leaving the tainted to suffer.

Magnus in Twine lost his wife and son, which immobilizes him. He can't find solance in anything save alcohol and brooding over their graves. It takes outside interference to pull him directly from his grief, to help him see past the loss of his family and look towards the future where life might once again be worth living. His struggle with grief is painfully familiar and so very, very close to many real life struggles that it's extremely poignant.

This struggle with grief is the fight the Ascians are, without question, losing. Let's set aside the "tempering" argument when it comes to Emet-Selch and Elidibus for the moment, largely because it's actually quite true that grief can spur people into committing horrific acts either as a desperate attempt to assuage their own pain (revenge) or make 'things right' in some way (vengeance).

Emet-Selch does not, in fact, properly grieve for Amaurot and the Ancients he knew. He clings to them, as Hythlodaeus tells us, weighed down by an aching sense of loss.

"And though he may carry himself with a certain glib ease, Emet-Selch is not a man to bear his burdens lightly. In fact, I imagine they have only grown heavier with every passing century. ...T'is truly a terrible weight he has chosen to carry."

Quite significantly is the word "chosen" in that. Grief is a process that involves, eventually, letting go of the pain and living with the memories of what was loved and what no longer is. Emet-Selch chooses not to do that. He does not grieve for Amaurot and his lost loved ones; he refuses, no matter how often he mentions his loss, to admit that what is gone is gone.

Elidibus, rather similarly, refuses to accept that the duty he took on when called upon to become Zodiark's heart is finally at an end. That the world he and Emet-Selch originated from is gone. Although he admits that he can barely remember why he's set on this path, he refuses to turn away from him.

One won't forget, one can barely remember--neither will grieve and let go.

Even the Ascians' characteristic arrogance and disdain for what they consider "lesser beings" is easy to read as their long-lasting struggle with grief. Considering the Sundering, all the beings that the Ascians are so disdainful of are, in fact, echoes of that which they once knew. If they acknowledged that, accepted those beings as what they are and perhaps even admitted they had worth... well... Rather like realizing abruptly that you've spent a whole day without thinking of someone recently departed, it feels like a betrayal.

To find value in the worlds as they currently are, to turn away from the duty they were asked to uphold, to choose to lay down the memories of the past are all, in essence, choices the Ascians will not make because to do so would be to let go of what's lost, to move into the acceptance of grief and that can feel like betraying those whose memories are slowly fading.

Emet-Selch's end--"Remember us."--is directly tied to his refusal to forget. To let himself have even one day without hoping for an eventuality that's highly unlikely regardless of effort, without remembering the Sundering and the Final Days. He remembered, forcefully and tenaciously, and wishes that legacy to live beyond him.

While Elidibus, in remembering, unable to deny failure any longer, finally expresses grief and loss. "My people. My brothers. ...My friends. Stay strong. Keep the faith. At duty's end, we will meet again. We will. We will. The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it."

And coming from villains, quite specifically from villains that have been largely indistinct "puppet master" figures throughout the previous expansions, these story arcs were a punch to the gut. (Yes, I had to pause writing this to cry helplessly over Elidibus again because my gods, that last line just...) Villains are at their best in fiction when they're relatable. When it's so very easy to see that thin line between villain and hero.

Faced with the loss of everything you'd ever loved, with the faintest possibility of getting it back, what would you do? What wouldn't you do? Yes, the Ascians did terrible things and that's undeniable. Stopping them was necessary to save hundreds of thousands of lives. And doing so, being victorious, didn't feel like a victory and that is such a rare, rare thing in media. The Warrior of Light does the right thing, but in doing so, must face the fact that those they've been fighting have hopes and dreams and feelings and pain as real and as motivating as theirs.

And Shadowbringers does such an impressive job of turning those standard tropes around. Heroes are a dime a dozen because if you just awaken them, as Elidibus did with the starshower, well, there can be dozens of Warriors running around. Villains have heart-wrenching motivations and relatable reasons for their goals. History is multi-faceted and no one person knows what the "truth" truly is. Grief can spur people to helping others (i.e. the tank Role Quest ending) or it can fester and go unhealed and create nothing but more destruction.

There is so much that Shadowbringers did beautifully, I don't have the time to touch on all of it. The lack of "breaking the flawed system fixes everything" trope following Eulmore's liberation from Vauthry and the struggles that Eulmore faces in trying to build a functional, working social order for themselves. Embracing the value of childish dreams and tending to the smallest, most overlooked victims of trauma with the Pixie Tribal Quests. Dealing with a commander whose soldiers died and seeing Lyna's survivor's guilt. Seeing how having a single, unified goal can inspire and rally people into putting differences aside and helping each other.

Shadowbringers has finally ended with Patch 5.55. The story on the First ended with Patch 5.3. And all I can say is that this is a game that I will never forget.

#Shadowbringers #FFXIV #OOC #Yes I had A Lot of Thoughts

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ishaslife · 2 years

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FINAL FANTASY XIV: SHADOWBRINGERS

This post may contain spoilers.

I just finished the main story for Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers and my goodness was this a wild ride! I did not make a blog post on Stormblood as I had many mixed feelings on it and I feel as if it was unnecessarily long. There were some moments I loved and some that just made me feel "this is stretching out too much."

Shadowbringers has to be my favourite expansion alongside Heavensward, while it wasn't so long, the story and characters really stuck with me. I liked how shadowbringers wasn't as much about Hydaelyn but about the people in the story, people who have been there with us from the very start and people we have met along the way. I have so much to speak on the Ascians, their language that sounds so ethereal and beautiful, like a long lost memory that you can't exactly place but you know it exists, the people that tower over you like magestic, gentle giants and Amarout, a beautiful city long forgotten but still close to certain hearts.

Ardbert and Thancred made me cry, Y'shtola is still a bitch (sorry Y'shtola stans), Urianger is a darling man, Alphinaud and Alisaie are my babies, Ryne and the Exarch must be protected.

I genuinely loved what they did with Ryne and how they gave her a character, something that they really failed to do with Minfilia. I love Minifilia, but they really did her wrong by not making us feel as much for her. She is often shown as this meek, unable to fight and unable-to-help-herself type girl when she really isn't, she's in every way a very good person and also a fighter who only wants the best for the world. For anyone who hasn't played Legacy (like myself) it was very hard for me to feel attached to her as I knew almost nothing about her other than a few tidbits here and there but I respect her character nonetheless and I'm glad they did her justice with Ryne to carry on her legacy but at the same time allowing her to be her own person rather than just making her live in Minfilia's shadow. Thancred's character development broke my heart, to see him so distant from his flirty, carefree self made me feel so sad for him and there were just times I wish I could give him a hug, because God knows he needs and deserves one. Having lost as much as Thancred had, his change was understanble and so was his discomfort around Ryne, a girl who took the place of his beloved (sort of) adopted daughter. When Ryne starts becoming her own person, Thancred too starts to see her for what she is, what she has become and what she wants to be rather than what Minifilia was and what he had lost, thus giving himself and Ryne a chance to grow, open up to one another and build a beautiful relationship.

Ardbert, my companion who stayed by my side always even when I wasn't talking to him, I like to think that I gave him some sort of company and comfort after all these of being lonely. I cannot imagine what it must've been like to not be seen or heard by anyone, calling out and having no one reply in return for over a century. I was glad (and crying) to see that he made his way back to his comardes.

Emet-Selch, the Ascian who would do anything to restore his world. My heart broke for him, when it ended, I sobbed. I didn't tear up, I didn't cry, I sobbed. I have not the words to describe how I felt when he died. He will be remembered, if not by all then perhaps by us few who knew him and his story, the story of his people and will never forget.

The Exarch who turned out to be our long lost friend, something I knew from the start but nonetheless made me cry. (please don't try to sacrifice yourself again or else my heart will literally shatter.)

Forgive me if I got a bit carried away, I'm not a great writer and I often don't know how to put my feelings into words so that people would understand them but all I can say is that shadowbringers was a whole roller-coaster of emotions and a story that will stay close to my heart always. I'm looking forward to the patches, from what I've heard, the story gets even better and I can't wait!

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yetanotherfanficblog · 4 years

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Part

Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV

Characters: Pyotyr Ilych (Male Duskwight Elezen Warrior of Light), Y’shtola Rhul

Rating/Warnings: PG (Mentions of Violence and Death)

Summary: Pyotyr considers the ramifications of the battle for the fate of the First, and the marks it has left upon his soul. Written for ffxiv write 2020 prompt #14. Spoilers for the Shadowbringers MSQ.

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Pyotyr Ilych, Warrior of Darkness, had much to consider. The identity of the Crystal Exarch. The strange and wondrous sight of the ancient city of Amarout, and the combination of fear and of longing, and of mourning for something lost, or stolen, or forgotten, that suffused his chest when he remembered those tall spires. The last words of Hades, of Emet-Selch.

But for now, he focused on his hand, held above him, fingers splayed, as he leaned back in a chair at his kitchen table, in his quarters at the pendants. For a long moment, he held it there, staring at the back of those long, delicate, fingers as if the pattern of scrunched skin on his knuckles might unlock the secrets of creation.

He was only barely roused from his reverie by a knock at the door.

"Come In!" he called, still looking at his hand. The door opened to admit his fellow Scion, Y'shtola Rhul, lately known as Master Matoya of the Night's Blessed.

She looked at the Elezen splayed out on the chair before her, hand in the air, and cleared her throat delicately, "Are... you quite alright, Pyotyr?"

"Oh!" Pyotyr shook his head, as if snapped out of a dream into waking, he lowered his hand quickly, tugging his garments into places as he rose from his chair, "Y'shtola! Come in, Come in! What a pleasant surprise, I thought you were on your way back to Slitherbough!"

"I was planning to be," Y'shtola said, taking the proffered invitation and sweeping into the room, "But I decided I'd best stock up on certain reagents and research materials before I returned, and the markets won't have all of them ready until the morrow."

Pyotyr smiled, "So, one more day in the Crystarium, and you choose to spend a part of it with me? You honor me."

Y'shtola smiled back, with a bit of a sigh, "None of that, now, Pyotyr. You're one of my dearest friends, and I hadn't seen you in years, and only days ago, I thought we might lose you forever."

Pyotyr grinned, "But I am here, and feeling better than ever. Available to brew a potion, heal a wound, slay a monster, or discuss aetheric theory with a dear friend over a cup of tea. Shall I pour you one?" He walked breezily over to the stove, where a kettle had indeed just begun to pipe, and began bustling about grabbing a pair of cups and a small tin of tea leaves from a nearby cupboard.

"Tea sounds wonderful," Y'shtola said tentatively, sitting down at one of the small but sturdy wooden chairs at the kitchen table, smoothing her skirts, "but are you sure?"

"What, sure I want tea?" Pyotyr said, without looking back, focused on packing the leaves into their tea balls, "Of course I am. We've spent too many nights at the Rising Stones poring over old tomes together over a cup for you to doubt that, haven't we?"

"No," She said with a sigh, "Are you sure you're alright? You looked rather distracted when you came in."

Pyotyr turned, now carrying two cups of steaming hot beverage on a small platter, and he smiled a small sad smile as he bought them to the kitchen table, setting one in front of Y’shtola, taking the other in his hands as he sat down beside her.

"Hm," he mused, "I suppose that is a fair question. And a hard one to answer. I feel... physically fine. Without the weight of that extra aether, I feel as light as feather. Yet, I feel more solid, more real, than I ever have before. It... sounds strange, but I feel like there is more of me."

Y'shtola took a sip of her tea, a thoughtful look on her face, "More? Yes, your aether looks repaired, but also... stronger. More solid. I suppose in some ways, you are... more."

"But," she continued, "I have a feeling that isn't all there is to it, is there?"

Pyotyr took his own sip of tea, then nodded at her, "Your instincts have always been sharp, my dear Miss Y'shtola."

He let out a long breath, and stared up at the ceiling for a moment before continuing, "When I say I feel like there is more of me, I find myself... somewhat terrified at what that might mean."

"Terrified? You have always been one the bravest, most steadfast persons I know. I know people change, but I cannot forsee that changing about you too soon."

Pyotyr smiled softly, "You flatter me, Y'shtola. But.... no, for whatever I am, I will continue to be loyal to the Scions, a defender of Eorzea as long as people of good will inhabit her land. But... I am, or thought I was, Pyotyr Ilych, Son of Vylbrand, Scholar, Scion, Alchemist, Doctor, and Friend. It was all I ever aspired to be, even if the tides of war and fate have swept me up into larger things than I ever dreamed of as a Limsan street rat."

"Emet-Selch," he continued, after another sip of tea, "seemed to recognize me as someone. I'm still not sure if he wanted me to desperately be his old friend, or hated with all his might that I might be his old friend."

"The possibility of reincarnation has been considered by scholars and believed in by many societies over the years," Y'shtola said, "But most of them believe you are who you are in the present. No matter how you reincarnated, or if you reincarnted, you are still you."

"Perhaps," Pyotyr said, "But It is strange to know who else you might have been... who else you might be, when you never expected to be anyone else... and beyond that. Ardbert."

"He was a part of you," Y'shtola said, a small acknowledgement, a nod of the head.

"Yes. My shard, my counterpart, here on the First. Whoever Emet-Selch recognized, we were both parts of him. And now Ardbert is part of me. Our souls are rejoined, parts of the person who Emet-Selch used to know."

Pyotyr drained the rest of his teacup before continuing, "And now I wonder. Where does he end and I begin? Shall I find myself possessed of that bravado? Of that desperation? Shall memories and thoughts of Braden and Lamitt and Renda-Rae and Nyelbert crowd out memories of Alphinaud and Y'shtola and Thancred and Urianger and Alisaie? And what of the person Emet-Selch knew? Now that I am closer to that person, now that I have come closer to what the Ancients were, what the Ascians are... shall I find myself forgetting myself and Ardbert alike? Will I be seized with a dangerous nostalgia for a past world? Shall I find myself wandering ruins of the past in anger and lust? Emet-Selch asked me to remember, Ardbert and his comrades deserve to be remembered as the heroes they were, and I want to. I want to remember them. I want to remember them. But I want to remember ME, too. How can I make sure I still remember me, that I am still Pyotyr, when I have had so many other people thrust upon me now?"

His hands dropped to his knees, and his face dropped with them, just a bit, as if he might be trying to hide his eyes, and he fell silent again.

Y'shtola closed her eyes for a moment, sighed, then opened then. She leaned across the space between them, and placed a hand over Pyotyr's right hand, then scooped it up gently with the other, cradling it between her palms.

"I have watched your aether closely ever since we reunited," she said, "And I watched it even back on Eorzea, before the Exarch's summons took me. I know you, Pyotyr Ilych, not just as a beloved friend, but on a very elemental level. Ever since you were able to harness the light against Hades, you have been exactly as I remember from Eorzea, only more so."

"More so...?" Pyotyr raised his chin a bit, to look at her with shining eyes.

"Your pattern shines bright against the gaps, but it always has. And it has always been your pattern. Whoever you used to be, whoever you have been joined to. Your journey has tempered you in its own way. You have gained strength. You have gained comrades. You have gained wounds and healed wounds alike. But you have always shown the qualities that shine brightest in you, the compassion, the bravery, the will to fight to protect the weak. In all those ways, You are still the man I met so long ago, in the Grotto near Summerford Farms."

Pyotyr chuckled at that, "I remember it well. Your little history lesson on the Sailor's Requiem made me feel like I was back in school, then helped me defeat that poor goobbue, then handed me a knife, spoke a few cryptic words, and left me standing there, mouth agape."

Y'shtola smiled back, "See? Just as a sweet and sassy as you ever were, Pyotyr Ilych. And in my defense, I did come back for you."

Pyotyr chuckled, "And swept me up into a world I never imagined. All because I wanted to know why some of my old shipmates had been kidnapped. Despite such strange beginnings, I can't say I would have traded any of it for the world. Thank you, My Mysterious Cultured Conjurer, for noticing such an unlikely adventurer."

Y'shtola chuckled herself at that, and squeezed Pyotyr's hand, "Unlikely or no, I can't imagine anything up until now would have gone as well as it has without you. Whatever else happens, you are still a Scion. We will be besides you, and we will always remind you of who you are: Our hero, our exemplar, and most importantly, our Beloved friend."

Pyotyr now smiled, a true, unguarded grin, as he squeezed Y'shtola's hand back in return, "Alright. You've convinced me. I'll put aside my worries, at least for now. But... I think it will be a few hours before I feel like going to bed. Would you perhaps, stay with me, My dear Miss Y'shtola? We can talk of old times, or you can tell me stories of your time here in the First."

"I can think of no better way to pass the time, my dear old friend," Y'shtola answered back.

And so they sat, the two friends, the two veterans, speaking of all the adventures they had been a part of, past and present, and even into the future, long into the night.

#ffxiv #ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2020 #y'shtola rhul #fanfic

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illegiblewords · 4 years

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Hooooooo boy.

So apparently villain fan versus villain fan discourse is kicking up.

Have some reiterated opinions, some fresh ones, and some weird ones. Technically this is vagueblogging about some specific stuff but intent is no-drama here.

Emet-Selch versus Vauthry fan wank seems to be happening, which I’m sighing over because it’s a kind of ridiculous argument to have imo. Neither of these dudes are good people. Like we can debate accountability ‘til the cows come home and as I’ve been saying my opinions on insanity plea are strong. But like. I think at the very best we can argue for is a moral gray.

I can get Emet-Selch as a fallen hero/hero of Amaurot and for that reason haven’t been overly bothered by the “hero” line in the extreme fight. Vauthry is tragic but he’s basically inflicting forced cannibalism and mind control en masse. I personally am not of the opinion that he would qualify for a realistic insanity plea, so that impacts my measure of accountability. He’s also extremely, EXTREMELY familiar to me in how he thinks and behaves due to people I’ve encountered over the years. I understand how he got to a place where he thought those measures were acceptable. A form of mental illness is absolutely in play there as I read him, but it would not count toward the legal definition of insanity and for me that is significant.

As it stands, trying to claim whose behavior is less wrong is a stupid game to play when it’s genocide versus mass murder/forced cannibalism. Generally I’d rather opt out of that one because neither of these actions are things most people want to emulate. It seems like fans are more trying to decide who is moral enough to be allowed compassion/caring and who isn’t, which is an even more stupid game to play to my mind.

I don’t think having compassion and empathy for Emet-Selch or Vauthry are problems so much as selective compassion/empathy. As in “X person isn’t allowed to have compassion/empathy”.

I belong very much to the school of “everyone counts”. This means that in life some people inevitably go bad and commit atrocities that need to be stopped even if that means their death. It’s a very tragic thing when that happens and should be mourned, at least because if things had gone differently maybe the person would have turned out better. As long as you are able to remember the humanity of all involved (with the messiness that entails), odds are you’ll be able to navigate tough situations alright imo. When you start pretending some people are less than human, acceptable targets, or whose suffering otherwise doesn’t count--that’s extremely dangerous imo. It makes it easy to dismiss another person’s pain, which in turn makes it much easier to be cruel or callous. Sometimes needlessly.

Some additional bits:

- Emet-Selch did not say he would see the Sundered as less-than-human/not-really-alive/acceptable-targets if he wasn’t tempered. Attributing as much to him is literally, factually untrue. Moreover even if he had said it--he is an unreliable narrator on this front. He doesn’t know, he got tempered by the most powerful primal in existence. I’ve talked about how he lives the trolley problem before as well, which being added to tempering I think only exacerbates the level that he’s compromised. It’s a mind-wrecking situation.

- I’ve seen some people argue that because there was a point in time when Emet-Selch wasn’t tempered, his judgment while tempered isn’t as compromised as Vauthry’s is. That’s like arguing because someone at one point in their life did not have PTSD, or had not reached onset for Schizophrenia, therefore how they behaved and thought after developing those things is less compromising. It makes no sense to me as an argument. You could be born with a less severe condition that lasts your entire life while someone else is initially stable and gets completely crippled by mental illness. As it stands, I don’t even know if more severe/less severe is the way I’d even frame it because this seems like apples and oranges insofar as thought patterns go. They’re both fruit/both mentally ill characters but I mean other than that? Too different to get much from that comparison.

By the by. I know that I bring my own influences to the table in how I read things, but to me tempering absolutely reads as a mental illness allegory where it distorts a person’s existing thoughts in extreme ways that they would not do otherwise--but specifically distorting in such a way that serves the primal in question. I also think that other FFXIV characters show indications of different forms of mental illness, and I’m actually very impressed by how well the devs captured these.

Mental illness as a subject tends to get extremely complicated and people often have no idea how to deal with it. It’s also something that tends to get brushed aside, dismissed, or oversimplified today--both in fan communities and in-general. I’m glad people are having conversations about it, but good lord this is not a place to have pissing contests or try to impose pure good/evil morality.

- People are entering debate over Vauthry’s weight and whether joking about it is okay or not. I want to pose a few points. 1) Dulia Chai, also very overweight, does not receive the treatment Vauthry does and seems pretty beloved 2) Vauthry, in a period of widespread famine and as the person explicitly charged with ALL OF EULMORE’S WEALTH (as in, all of the people living under him surrendered their property in exchange for his protection) is seriously, dangerously overweight due in large part to unapologetic, non-essential cannibalism. He honestly resembles people who have been rendered physically immobile and are dying due to obesity complications during this time period, that is not something that happens without serious excess. Vauthry holds funds that were given to him specifically not for his own personal enjoyment but to perform a job for the people. He absolutely places his own pleasure above the survival of the poor. If he was that overweight in a time of plenty or as someone without the level of power he holds, it would not read the same way. Under these specific circumstances his physicality is a direct representation of his corruption and hypocrisy. Under other circumstances that might not have been the case. 3) In the same way that enabling harmful thought patterns/behavioral tendencies in a mentally ill person is bad and can constitute abuse, it is possible to cause harm by encouraging extreme and dangerous physical states. I am a strong believer in the idea that every body type can be beautiful provided it doesn’t look like the person faces imminent danger to their health or is actively dying. For me this is not exclusive to extreme obesity but also extends to starvation and some instances of extreme body-building as well. Think steroid abuse.

When a body registers as “sick”, there is a level of instinctive discomfort for most people. Sometimes this comes with sympathy and concern for the person dealing with that issue, sometimes it alienates others from them them. But when an individual actively embraces self-destruction by pursuing such an extreme and dangerous state either by design or out of apathy to the threat, it’s normal for a measure of horror to be attached because it becomes a form of self-harm. Vauthry evokes that to me. Dulia Chai does not. 4) I’ve joked about the wonders of the meol diet, because I know firsthand how difficult weight loss can be. To go from Vauthry’s level to Innocence’s in like six steps is absurd --the fact that he’s been on a cannibalism diet specifically takes it the extra mile into hilarity for me. I haven’t seen as many jokes about his weight in-general so much as the sudden transformation. If the butt of the joke is cannibalism and ridiculous speed/opposite appearance turnaround, I personally don’t think those cases warrant offense. 5) I’ve had people try to fight me before for saying there is a such thing as being dangerously overweight. No comments on dangerously underweight or muscular, just overweight. So to set people at ease--I have personally dealt with serious health risks caused by obesity before. I’ve had loved ones who were in the same position and I have lost family members directly as a result of obesity-related health problems. It’s a very difficult thing to deal with. I have a lot of sympathy on this subject and understand how devastating it can be to endure shitty treatment due to weight.

I personally don’t think it’s right to forbid any jokes that deal with Vauthry’s weight, or that deal with hot subjects in-general. I think the punchline of the joke matters a ton though. Making a joke at the expense of someone struggling with something difficult is shitty. Making a joke about cannibalism turning you into a sparkling bishonen after walking down a set of stairs is just ridiculous.

Likewise, I don’t think it’s a problem for people to feel disturbed by severe health problems... but I do think it’s important to separate the person dealing with the illness from the illness itself. This goes for physical and mental issues.

I know that a lot of people don’t necessarily agree with these types of opinions and that’s okay. They’re not really common right now and are things I arrived at just by thinking myself and trying to sort out what seems appropriate as best I can.

- I’ve talked about how insanity plea when I was researching it more or less came down to a person having their perception of reality and their judgment so heavily impaired by illness that they cannot be expected to react to situations in the same way that someone without that impairment would. I’ve seen people try to argue about how someone saying demons made them murder another person wouldn’t have any less accountability to them. I think that case could actually fall under insanity plea but would need close evaluation to make sure. If the person truly believed that they and their loved ones would be tortured to death by demons if they refused or told anyone or something--yeah, insanity plea in play there. Part of the issue is that the act is horrible and I think there’s a longstanding skepticism on whether the person is sincerely crazy or just bullshitting.

In general, a cluster B personality disorder would not qualify for insanity plea. Still might involve inaccurate perception of the world or others, but the type of delusion and impairment would not inherently compel them toward violent/unlawful action or prevent them from seeking help. They also tend to be somewhat more aware of the world around them, but whether they care and how they interact/why can be dictated by the condition. Given I think Zenos is more or less an Antisocial Personality Disorder poster child (not because “I don’t like people so edgy”, I mean in terms of treating people in his life as filling roles and therefore being replaceable, overwhelming ennui in most aspects of his life, lack of interest or fulfillment in interpersonal relationships, etc.)--I do not think he would qualify for insanity plea.

Vauthry I’m not positive what I think he has yet, again he reminds me a lot of people I’ve met but certain conditions manifest similarly under the circumstances I have in mind. I think he absolutely has inhibited empathy. He’s also very spoiled, self-righteous, and possibly has no theory of mind. I don’t think he has instincts for taboo either which probably does tie to his sin-eater heritage. I don’t think his growing up in Eulmore or even having a shitty upbringing is the main reason he is the way he is, imo it’s a combination of nature and nurture. I think being part sin-eater essentially made it easier for him to become monstrous, but who knows--if he’d had a really good upbringing in a non-toxic environment maybe he could have been a good man anyway. Same way that having a cluster B personality disorder does not make a person evil by a long shot, but it can make it easier to hurt others due to the way thought patterns are impacted.

I would want to double check some research, but right now I think Vauthry reads likely for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He has mood swings but none of them seem to be depressive, it’s more egotism/happiness and anger by and large. When he does get sad before dying, it’s not because of loving or missing his father but because the self-image he loved (as encouraged by his father) was compromised.

I think he’s a bit slow and I think he only cares about others insofar as they’re tools to define himself as well as possible to his own mind. I don’t think, listening to G’raha Tia or anyone who begged him to change course, he was unable to comprehend what they were saying. He was just closed-minded to it imo.

With Emet-Selch meanwhile, I actually think both how he was impacted by specific interactions, his memories, and possibly even his sensory understanding of sundered beings might have been compromised by Zodiark. Like being colorblind, almost. I think the way he deals with the world, there are a ton of colors he can no longer perceive due to tempering but he has no idea that what he should be perceiving is there. He remembers being able to see all colors in Amaurot, but after the sundering suddenly purple was gone. Purple is still actually there, but he is not capable of seeing it. You could literally wave a purple flower in front of his face and it wouldn’t register. He might even accuse you of lying because he remembers purple, and purple is gone, and he’s doing everything he can to get purple back--but he has no idea that purple has still been here but he’s been altered in such a way that despite remembering it, he can’t see it anymore. As per tempering.

Vauthry knows about purple, he just doesn’t have much interest in it outside how it looks with his complexion. If purple is unflattering then fuck purple. Burn it to the ground, ban it, forbid anyone else from indulging in it. If it works, then no one would have more or prettier purples than him.

- It is time for me to take a nap but basically it was shitty to give Vauthry a sin-eater streak but 1) I do still think that’s severely impaired judgment 2) I don’t necessarily think that Vauthry was bound in the same way by his mental condition. I do think Vauthry believed himself to be doing good but didn’t actually have a clear concept of good in existence.

#ffxiv

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myrfing · 5 years

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heavy shb msq spoilers

said this on twitter but while I really like emet-selch cus his character meant so much to everything and was so well written and you could empathize with him deeply...the idea that we’d “do the same thing” is ridiculous for a fuck ton of reasons and forreal I do not find his actions sympathetic. The idea that something is only worthy of living if it is physically/mentally “perfect” by a standard that ignores an individual’s capacity for emotion, love, and diversity sucks dude! Though I understand that nothing like the Ascians exists in real life and we’re using fantasy morals here where we kind of just accept that there is a “””perfect””” race but I legitimately just cannot sit with it. ima say it is really weird that so many people find this acceptable as a justification and would spare him. I know his hatred & disgust is mostly borne out of grief for the people he loved (he made everyone in Amaurot one by one...) and a complete inability to accept death and conflict due to the nature of Ascians/probably in part due to Zodiark’s tempering BUT STILL IT IS...IRREVERENT HATRED MAN...HELD UP WITH REASONS HE BELIEVES AND SEEMINGLY A LOT OF THE PLAYERBASE BELIEVES...IF we were strong enough to contain the light, then he would have begun to consider us “worthy”. that’s such an absurd standard to weigh someone’s life with. And as for the rest, “low intelligence” “low aptitude” goodness gracious I’m naht taking that at face value.

We also fail to get an elaboration on WHY EXACTLY Hydaelyn was summoned. It must have come at a great cost and it was to check Zodiark- so what did Zodiark do to warrant this in the first place? Nor do we get details on why exactly their calamity happened, and what we get implies it was an intrinsic fault of the Ascian’s creation magic and MAYBE the structure of their society repressing outlying ideas. And regardless of how E-S percieves us as inferior by lack of physical, magical, and mental power and by our mortal lives like...this result came to be at the choice of a faction of his fellow Ascians. His perfect people became divided and fought and created all of this. Feel like it’s disingenuous to say “well he’s trying to save his Entire Peoples” when 1. we’re just his peoples in a different form that he cannot accept for reasons that ME cant accept LMFAO and 2. then this isn’t a fight that’s just about tangible lives, it’s a fight about ideals.

regardless me glad we got such a complex antagonist

#5.0 spoilers #ffxiv

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thevoilinauttheory · 5 years

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Very long (though positive) thoughts on ShBs so far [that nobody asked for or wanted but here it is]

Below the cut are 5.0 and 5.01 spoilers! Enter at your own risk! Very, very long. There’s so much I’ve wanted to talk about that I haven’t been able to.

So let me just start out with how much I absolutely fucking *love* this expac. I cannot stop talking about it, or trying to get my friends into XIV just to play it so I can scream about it.

Everything about it is just so fucking wonderful. The character development, the music, the art, the story! I was absolutely floored!

And because of that, I have fallen down into Emet-Selch hell - his character was just so well played, so wonderfully developed. Every moment that I thought I hated him, they came back and hit me so hard in the feels that I want to double over and cry just thinking about it - they made me absolutely love him, sympathize with him.

You get to see all of your comrades grow as people - Thancred dealing with his regrets with Minfilia, putting aside his feelings and his past to help Ryne grow. Urianger shows so much more emotion (that’s not to say he wasn’t emotional before, they just never touched much on it - nor did the hood or goggle do any good in determining his emotions [likely on purpose]), but you can now see on his face the pain of lying to his friends that he promised never to do again. Y’shtola, whom has always been a character I loved, gave me conflicted feelings. She distanced herself from those she knew, and with the WoL/D’s coming, has to force herself to open up again - growing an attachment to those around her in Slitherbough. You can tell just how much she doesn’t want to leave them, but knows she has to. That sassy attitude only got sassier in this expac. And don’t get me started on my children. Alphinaud has grown so much since we’ve first started our adventure with him; he’s become self-aware, he strives to make the same different the WoL/D made on The Source in Kholusia; he makes mistakes and admits to them - he’s also grown more fucking savage with his wit.(See: “What you need is a mirror, not a painting.” Quote made towards Vauthry.) And Alisaie, gods, Alisaie’s EN voice actor gave me chills. Every heartbreaking moment, you could hear it. I shred tears just from her tone of voice alone in some scenes. She’s just as fiery, times ten - acting before thinking as always. Her stand against Emet-Selch was both expected and unexpected. She grew attached to the land and its peoples - possibly offering even more emotion for it than anyone else. She’s just so full of emotion at all times, you can see it building up throughout the story - just welling up and bursting when she knows that her dear friend is about to turn into the things she’s sought to kill. After what she witnessed with Tesleen and everything that the Inn stands for, the thought of someone even closer to her feeling the pain of turning into a monster just absolutely breaks her.

And let’s not forget the “new” characters we learn about. The Exarch - we all knew who he was, but the lengths he had gone through, just to see to the WoL/D’s safety is so heartwarming. And the care he has for the people in the Crystarium. I was absolutely sobbing after the Innocence fight, what with the emotional music and his words (until Emet ruined it with a fuckin gun, like come on man, tryin’ to have a touching moment here). Ryne is the Minfilia we always wanted. Don’t get me wrong - I understand the roles Minfilia played before, but her story was so... underwhelming. She had a lot of potential to be a stunning character, to be the ally that we grew to trust and love. But SE didn’t give us any room to do so before she died. Ryne, however, is such a sweet child (my newest daughter, if anyone hurts her I will fucking murder everyone). She suffers through depression, anxiety, feelings of the inadequacy of walking in the Oracle’s shadow - she’s never had a life with choices, and Thancred’s attitude while traveling with her only serves to fuel the doubt more. Until she travels with you more, and she knows what she has to do. She becomes so focused, so fully intent with drive and passion to save what’s left of her home. You see the drive they had meant to give Minfilia in ARR, the personality she was supposed to have; and it gives you a deeper feeling for not only what Minfilia had gone through - but both Ryne and Thancred as well; especially in the Eden storyline, when she does her all to give back to the land. Hhhhhh and not to mention Lyna, my god. I was afraid she was just going to be a character that makes you want for more but they never give it to you. I was afraid they wouldn’t build her character, then just kill her off. But I was so wrong, happily so! She got the character building she needed - the pain in her voice when she talks about her lost comrades, when she’s injured to hells and back and still crawls to see to all of their needs. Her history with the Exarch, how she met him and how he practically adopted her. And still alive! I want to see more of her in the future, and learn more about her drive and passion.

And last but not least, the development of the WoL/D themselves. Learning of their shattered lives scattered across worlds; finally showing that sense of weakness as they carry a burden no one else can. They show fear when they talk to Ardbert, “What if I do become the monster”, “what happens then”, “I’m a danger to everyone”. (On top of being even snarkier and more tired of people’s shit than before). They grow so much as a character, even if you already have their character planned out! To give our characters so much emotion and doubt and anger, to let them rest, to let them cry, to let the pray and hope and wish for change. I just can’t get over it.

The music has been... so, so good to me. I am absolutely living for it. I want a CD out *now*. I’ve been planning the same songs on repeat, because I can’t get them out of my head. Full Fathom Five, the city of Amaurot’s theme, and Mortal Instants - I cannot live without these songs and I do not know how I had before. Tomorrow and Tomorrow is so emotional and powerful. Shadowbringers and Hades’s second theme, hhhhhhhh and The Twinning’s theme, A Long Fall! I just. orz. I can’t explain just how much I love these songs.

The dungeons and story gave me so much lore that I’ve always needed, particularly around Emet-Selch, the Ascians, and Amaurot. These themes are actually what prompted me to write shit and I barely write at all. I can’t get over all of it - and god, if only I could go through the entire story again for the first time.

In summary: As I started Shadowbringers, the expansion was about on par with Heavensward for me (do not get me started on all the themes and tropes that made HW my favorite)... until Mt. Gulg and the Innocence fight. After that, the story hit so hard, it ended up easily surpassing Heavensward and is not my current favorite expansion so far.

#ooc #5.0 spoilers #5.01 spoilers #shadowbringers spoilers #ffxiv spoilers #very long rant

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