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Just noticed this seems to be (a recolor of?) the pre-imperial Garlean revolver. Taking out the antique gun to solve a family dispute.
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Dec 23, 2023 08:44
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Blueberry Pancakes posted:
I dont think we know what the ascians did at the start of Allag. It's impossible that Solus was Xande, their first great emperor, since Solus was running Garlemald while Xande was stuck in the Crystal Tower. So it must be a different strategy. We know the Allagans developed their tech by studying Omega, so this guy probably went "wow check out this cool alien robot I found" and let it spiral out from there.
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Dec 23, 2023 08:46
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I love Solus but I love someone else introduced here more.  I remember getting to this part of the MSQ and being blown away by how hype it got the second Thancred went down, and that’s with me spoiling myself on the entire plot of ShB through the power of……. I was really desperate for Estinien/Aymeric in the wake of finishing 3.3 and opened AO3 while all my friends screamed NO and I went “wait why is everyone shipping their WoL with these people”. Uh. Not recommended. Thankfully not a problem most goons have. 
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Dec 23, 2023 08:50
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All of this stuff was absolutely incredible to go through, but man, I have to say that Solus’s introduction is perhaps one of my favorite character introductions in the game. I was aware of some things about him beforehand but literally nothing could have prepared me for his grandson petulantly shooting him and his corpse rolling down the stairs and just lying there as Solus pops back with a mildly beleaguered sigh. I absolutely love that the Galvus family has the potential to be the ultimate dark sitcom, they’re just so loving funny. I think one of the funnier things is that Matsuno recently mentioned in a 10th anniversary message that he had no idea that was coming when he established Solus as a big theater nerd. Truly a delight.
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Dec 23, 2023 08:52
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sweet geek swag posted:Solus is... great. I have nothing else to say about him as a character right now. Wrestlepig posted:I dont think we know what the ascians did at the start of Allag. It's impossible that Solus was Xande, their first great emperor, since Solus was running Garlemald while Xande was stuck in the Crystal Tower. So it must be a different strategy. We know the Allagans developed their tech by studying Omega, so this guy probably went "wow check out this cool alien robot I found" and let it spiral out from there. GilliamYaeger fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 08:53
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Patch 4.4 is fantastic, as noted. The first couple of post-Stormblood patches struggled to really grab me and I was having to force my way through the MSQ but 4.4 had everything I was looking for. I love the Burn's soundtrack, I love the Burn (Savage), Ga Bu, Solus the skunk-haired immortal theatre kid, whatever's going on with the Scions ... If this doesn't get you hyped up for the coming expansion, nothing will.
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Dec 23, 2023 08:54
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If it weren't for the change in voice actors we'd know who Shadowhunter is because he had a voice line either this or last patch. San is right in that they're a reoccurring character...
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Dec 23, 2023 08:55
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sweet geek swag posted:I think you took Solus a little wrong about the Garlean Empire though. He didn't say he built the Garlean Empire wrong to sow chaos, he says he built the Garlean Empire to sow chaos. An empire by its very nature sows chaos. Maybe Solus made it extra bad or something, but I think Solus built an empire because the very act of maintaining an empire would require the chaos he wants. Empires are evil by their nature, but also this empire was built by an evil sorcerer for the purpose of being evil. It's like if you make your villain queer-coded; even if the person's evilness and gayness are unrelated, it can introduce a lot of unfortunate implications and unintended connections because of how gays have been portrayed in media historically.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:02
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Patch 4.4 is great, not least for the way it sets up your expectations and then throws several spanners in the works so you aren't so sure that things are going to happen the way you were thinking they would. Thancred going down was a huge oh poo poo moment. And Alisae's emotional journey through the whole ordeal is a genuinely fantastic performance. Finally, the world's most powerful theater kid has taken the stage.  He's the worst and also the best. Mostly the best.Unrelated, but my personal headcanon is that Sadu's VA legit lost her poo poo at "little sun" and they just captured it as-is.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:06
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GilliamYaeger posted:I'll note that the Xande you meet in the Crystal Tower is explicitly a clone of the original created centuries after the original died. I don't think FFXIV does cartesian dualism wrt clones very well (especially since souls definitely exist so how does that work?) but Xande-clone is Xande in the sense that it appeared to have the original's mental engrams or whatever, just also loaded up with nihilism. That could be wrong or incomplete, but we've been given no reason to doubt it. We also don't have an exhaustive history of Allag of course, so Solus could have done any number of things, Ascians mostly didn't insert themselves into a role for multiple decades in other cases that we saw, so they could have just done stuff like help develop Primal capture tech after giving Primal summoning magic to Meracydia or whatever, both times just being a dude in a black robe.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:07
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Wrestlepig posted:I dont think we know what the ascians did at the start of Allag. It's impossible that Solus was Xande, their first great emperor, since Solus was running Garlemald while Xande was stuck in the Crystal Tower. So it must be a different strategy. We know the Allagans developed their tech by studying Omega, so this guy probably went "wow check out this cool alien robot I found" and let it spiral out from there. Just as a refresher, according to the information we got during the Omega storyline, the original Emperor Xande invented Aetherochemistry, and that tech led to the initial establishment of the Allagan Empire. Some decades later, shortly after Xande's death, they found Omega. Studying its body and applying that information to their existing Aetherochemical knowledge base advanced their technology by several centuries over the course of around 60 years. Then they managed to awaken Omega's AI, and spent another 20 years learning to talk to it. Once effective communication was established, working with Omega gave them a THIRD giant tech leap over the course of a few more decades before the robot stopped being co-operative and that shut it off on the theory they had nothing else to learn from it. As far as we were told in Crystal Tower, Allagan society had largely stagnated until Xande's Clone came along, took over and implemented the program of global expansion and conquest. It was during said effort to unite the world under Allag's banner that the Clone introduced the use of Voidsent to his people, and when they started using Binding Coils and Internment Hulks. It's also when they came up the Dalamud project, which was explicitly about meeting the energy needs of widespread Voidsent usage. Personally I think its relatively safe to assume that the reign of Xande's Clone is when the Ascians first dug their talons into Allag based on that information. Sudden desire for mass conquest, use of Voidsent and use of Summoning are literally all of their calling cards. Kwyndig posted:If it weren't for the change in voice actors we'd know who Shadowhunter is because he had a voice line either this or last patch. San is right in that they're a reoccurring character... Did he? I swear all his scenes were voiceless. He's only had two. I don't even think his battle lines were voiced in the RP Duty. Sanguinia fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 09:09
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The Burn is easily one of the best dungeons in not just Stormblood but across FFXIV as a whole. The first two bosses are kind of a nothingburger but Mist Dragon used to be a proper wake-up call that the game was getting harder (and was a clever reference back to FF4, as others have outlined). Everything in this patch is firing on all cylinders and I think the only thing I remember having a problem with in the moment is that the Main Story content was too short - it could be because of how many cliffhangers they've put us on.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:11
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4.4 is truly a wild, wild ride. The amount that my close friends and I were yelling WHAT at one another in our linkshell over the latter half is a very fond memory. The drum of "This side-content should be made mandatory so the writers can actually do something to resolve it in the MSQ" is one that people are forever banging on, and they're right to do so. Solus is a fan favourite, and that single scene is the strongest introduction he could have possibly been given. He's just so much, and I love him. A tired but very extra old man.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:12
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sweet geek swag posted:I think you took Solus a little wrong about the Garlean Empire though. He didn't say he built the Garlean Empire wrong to sow chaos, he says he built the Garlean Empire to sow chaos. An empire by its very nature sows chaos. Maybe Solus made it extra bad or something, but I think Solus built an empire because the very act of maintaining an empire would require the chaos he wants. My objection wasn't to Solus making the Empire, it was to what Shadowhunter said, the implication that the reason the Empire is so bad is because Solus, an Ascian, made it, rather than because... its an Empire and Empires are always bad. He literally says "They have no interest in ruling, they just want to sew discord," and the unspoken part of that sentiment is "if they did have an interest in ruling the Empire would be fine and these things wouldn't happen." Again, I'm guessing that Shadowhunter feels that way because, you know, he's a Garlean soldier. He doesn't want to face the idea that even if there were no Ascians the Empire would still be bad. Hopefully the story will play that out and the notion that the Empire would be good without Ascians, especially the one that made it, will be rightly mocked.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:24
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4.4 is one of the best patches. The Burn is excellent, Little Sun is one of the most memorable insults in the game, and of course the whole deal with the Scions and the introduction of Solus, everybody's favorite theater kid. I couldn't wait for 4.5 to drop and see WTF was going on.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:26
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I like how canonically in XIV an evil wizard was like "I will design a system of government that is intended to fail as chaotically and destructively as possible" and that's how fascism was invented.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:37
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Sanguinia posted:Shadowhunter and Solus may have had flashy introductions, but they're still very much enigmas who spent most of their time on screen speaking in riddles. It's funny you felt that way about Solus. I thought that it was interesting how in just one cutscene he shows up, says everything you need to know about him and his mission, and then leaves. There wasn't any riddles at all, just needling Varis that he is but a co-star in the Ascians larger play. An important decoy, of course, but still a decoy. If anything, Varis's efforts to hold all the Garlean factions in line and prevent the Empire from coming apart at the seams has only served to continue the status quo, his prize for so much trouble essentially vapor. Anyhow... 
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Dec 23, 2023 09:37
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Sanguinia posted:Y'Shtola being completely done and walking away while the Dungeon Boss music plays for the epic battle we have no time for isn't even the best part. Not only does the dungeon boss music play, but right before the scene fades out, you can hear that little woosh noise that plays at the end of every dungeon boss intro scene once they're done going "RAWR" at you. Its the small details like that that I really enjoy about this game. (I have no comment on Solus or that weird voice thing right now other than "I agree with the masses.")
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Dec 23, 2023 09:38
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Man, I forgot how loaded 4.4 was. I remember all of these twists and introductions being a trip at the time, I just forgot they were also all together.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:40
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hell yeah. we're about at the point where I realized Shadowbringers was going to be interesting lmao
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Dec 23, 2023 09:44
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Craptacular! posted:It's funny you felt that way about Solus. I thought that it was interesting how in just one cutscene he shows up, says everything you need to know about him and his mission, and then leaves. There wasn't any riddles at all, just needling Varis that he is but a co-star in the Ascians larger play. I guess by riddles I just meant how much he blew up my understanding about what was going on and reminded me how little I actually know about the main villain and their true goals and intentions. 
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Dec 23, 2023 09:45
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The Garlean Empire's origins are at least an echo of Ishgard's nobility being a farce built on lies, though much more modern, since Solus is the progenitor of the Empire (but not pre-Imperial Garlemald, at least as far as we know...unless, Goug... ) and his death as that founder to the peoples of the world is incredibly recent.In an expansion with more Final Fantasy Tactics references than usual, this is in fact one of them that's not even locked behind an alliance raid!  So it stood out pretty well when used here. Added plenty of fuel for speculation, too. Spoilers for Final Fantasy Tactics: that guy is casting a spell to open a portal to drag Ramza and his crew into "Hell". Sanguinia posted:A new piece of music starts to play, a discordant and deeply sinister little arrangement called
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Dec 23, 2023 09:49
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"Let expanse contract; let eon become instant" just goes so hard.
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Dec 23, 2023 09:52
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Sanguinia posted:I guess by riddles I just meant how much he blew up my understanding about what was going on and reminded me how little I actually know about the main villain and their true goals and intentions. Not sure how familiar you are with Kingdom Hearts as a franchise, but there's a scene from the end of the first game that probably accurately summarizes how you were feeling at this point: 
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Dec 23, 2023 09:57
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The build up to Shadowbringers is so great, the story is mysterious, the new characters are interesting, the dungeons are top notch. It's my favorite pre expansion patch story.
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Dec 23, 2023 10:00
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What a good loving patch. I forgot just how many of these insanely memorable moments were all in one patch. Rediculous! The Burn is one of my favorite dungeons. I love how desolately beautiful it is. Also, its song is honestly one of my favorites in the entire game Lastly, I can attest to the Mist Dragon being memorable with first time players (especially first time tanks). And very memorable for us poor Blue Mages who wanted to learn its power. So many wipes... Beyond even my personal love of the Burn, 4.4 is also where I was most at the edge of my seat in the post-Stormblood patch cycle. I absolutely had to keep going and see what was going to happen next; what's the deal with Solus? Who IS Shadowhunter? Who's grabbing the homies through the Yugioh Shadow Realm? So many questions! I also felt that, amongst all the scions, Ali was the most established as deuteragonist by now. Much like Sang, I felt a very hard pull towards her and my own WoL having a pretty deep connection and no small amount of similarities. Others see their WoL as adopted parents; Sami will always be Ali's Irresponsible Auntie. But honestly. What a good loving patch!
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Dec 23, 2023 10:06
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Wrestlepig posted:I dont think we know what the ascians did at the start of Allag. It's impossible that Solus was Xande, their first great emperor, since Solus was running Garlemald while Xande was stuck in the Crystal Tower. Been sitting on this forever since Sang won't level the class that provides some of the support for it, but it was established in ARR that Allegans were a primitive people who worshipped before taking a hard swing to no-gods and hard sci fi technology at some undetermined point in history for.... some reasons. The Allegan Sun Temple in one of the Frontline maps is one of the clues toward that which we can call fair game for this. And yes, there's that sun god connection again. Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 10:15
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dyslexicfaser posted:I appreciate how excited Hien is when he gets to fly somewhere. Dude loves his purple eagle. Action Man is taking one for the team and allowing himself to be shackled by politics and I'm glad they let him out from time to time
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Dec 23, 2023 10:19
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Begemot posted:Yessssssssssss, Rat Grandpa has arrived! What version of Zenos is stoic? Seriously, the scenery-chewing Galvus genes may have skipped Varis but they didn't skip Zenos at all. He has moments where he's quieter but there's not a single point where I would call him stoic.
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Dec 23, 2023 10:38
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The biggest goddamn ham has entered the game, and he is amazing. I'm in full agreement with the below poster. Thundarr posted:
God, Solus' introduction is great. XD As an aside though? Zenos' VA, Luke Allen-Gale does an amazing job in that scene, and it's a pity that he gets overshadowed by the most dramatic grandpa popping up, because he manages to make it very clear just through cadence and delivery that it may be Zenos' body walking around, but it's not his soul or mind in the driver's seat. Just... perfect little detailing there. But yeah, this entire stretch of the MSQ with the Burn, diplomacy, creating a resistance to Garlemald, the voice and the affliction of our comrades and then just... Fuckin' Solus going "Everything is a edit: A final thing for anyone here who hasn't played the game, the peak, black physical comedy when Varis shoots Solus genuinely has to be seen to be believed. I laughed so hard the first time I watched it that I worried I'd cracked a rib. TLM3101 fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 10:41
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Here comes a special boy~ Also
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Dec 23, 2023 11:16
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W.T. Fits posted:Not sure how familiar you are with Kingdom Hearts as a franchise, but there's a scene from the end of the first game that probably accurately summarizes how you were feeling at this point: Hilariously, when I got to this a few weeks back all I could call Solus was "A Kingdom Hearts big bad who went into the wrong studio when he was meant to shoot for KH3". Also copy / Paste on my previous notes on how much better the animation has gotten all around without necessarily limiting the charm XIV has in terms of basically being a PSX FF Game with canned animations and the like. ConanThe3rd fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 11:18
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The throne room cutscene is one of those moments where I realized just how much the FFXIV cutscene animation team had really upped their game from the early days in ARR of mostly static NPCs talking to each other with static camera angles. I'm by no means any kind of expert but even I could see the cinematography team going completely wild in this one. The scene begins with Zenos approaching the Emperor in the throne room, as you'd expect. This is the Emperor's place of power, and Zenos is approaching it to ask a favor. A little bit strangely, Varis is not on the throne, but looking toward it from the floor. Lots can be implied from this, such as the seat of the Emperor may be larger than the man himself, Varis. But kings are often seen standing next to rather than sitting on a throne in certain political contexts, and still the relationships here are pretty much what you'd expect.   This guy steps out, literally the man behind the throne, immediately re-contextualizing everyone's locations in the scene. Varis, without having moved an inch, is now in the position of the supplicant at the foot of the throne.  the almost 90 degree dutch angle here (plus the music) tells us to buckle up because we're on the train to crazy town. Things are literally going sideways.   When Solus finally walks out of the scene, he does so in such a way that it forces Varis to turn around and re-assume the position of the Emperor at his throne. But as he does, it reveals Solus leaving behind his own corpse, which uh again is just literally the political situation Varis is in. He's Emperor because this smarmy piece of poo poo died and left it all for him to clean up. Lazy Fair fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 12:52
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TLM3101 posted:The biggest goddamn ham has entered the game, and he is amazing. I'm in full agreement with the below poster. Agreed with all of this. I feel like between Yotsuyu+Grynewaht and Varis+Solus FFXIV has sort of set into a pattern of the villains being part of deranged comedy duos that I just kind of love. Also yeah Luke Allen-Gale is a superstar. Granted it’s hard to name a VA who doesn’t nail it but he’s fantastic.
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Dec 23, 2023 12:56
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It's here we finally arrived at the first floor of the fireworks factory. Rat man! Ga Bu! Soulnapping! Little Sun! What a doozy of an update this was and how completely insane speculation became. A Sometimes Food fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 13:59
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Everything about this update is amazing.
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Dec 23, 2023 14:35
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CHEW THE SCENERY FOR ME, SOLUS, BABY.  Seriously though, people talk about Luke Allen-Gale giving 210%, but Rene Zagger goes just as hard and it's a huge part of why Solus is so great.
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Dec 23, 2023 15:23
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dyslexicfaser posted:I think it can be argued with validity that the simple fact that the Empire was built by a dark sorcerer weakens the prominent themes in Stormblood about the evils of Empire. I mean, I can see how you could read it that way, but I think you're being a bit too generous to our old friend the Shadowhunter. It's not that they came in and messed up Garlemald and Allag, perfectly functional and good empires. It's that, in this universe, imperialism was invented by an evil ghost wizard as a form of government that's bad on purpose. I don't think that is a PRO-imperial argument.
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Dec 23, 2023 15:29
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First of allSanguinia posted:coup-de-gras  (and the "-ce" is not silent either, it sounds like "grass")Second of all, from The Call up to the title drop of Shadowbringers, the build-up you are in is a thing of beauty, so many questions, so many half answers, so many cool moments. The introduction of Solus is so good, that dude oozes charisma and he fortunately never let go of that trait. Re: Black Rose: when you got that sidequest a ton of chapters back, I was actually surprised how early we were introduced to that checkov's gun. I did the sidequests on semi-automatic mode when I played Stormblood and completely forgot (or didn't pay attention) to this one, not that it meant anything at that point though. The interesting question is how much did they plan with it and if they actually intended to fire that specific gun, the XIV writers are very good at releasing open threads they may or may not have a continuation.
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Dec 23, 2023 15:35
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I understand the concern that making the empire the result of an evil purple wizard undermines the rest of the critique of imperialism, but personally I always felt that having it come up here, at the end of stormblood, did a lot to soften that blow. at least to me at the time (I played through the patches more or less consecutively because I played through later), it felt less like "this empire is evil because it was founded by a powerful evil wizard" and more like "this powerful evil wizard made an empire because he knows empires are inherently depraved engines of extraction and immiseration." still made me go a little ehhh as a reveal, but after an expansion all about empire literally and figuratively hollowing people out and turning them into monsters in pursuit of ends that are ultimately explicitly stupid and violent and nihilistic I can see how they wouldn't be worried about undercutting "life outside the metropole: the expansion" with this wizard twist
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Dec 23, 2023 15:47
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