Ah. Complications.
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0:00 – Introduction
0:37 – QUEST: “The Butcher’s Blood”
26:52 – QUEST: “Echoes of an Echo”
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Edited by Daniel Floyd
♫ “Pray Return” by Chris Logsdon
https://lnkfi.re/pray-return
#PlayFrame #FFXIV #FinalFantasyXIV #Stormblood
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Gods, I love Raubahn.
16:08 Gaius, eh? That's a name we haven't heard in a long time…
Yup, Gaius van Baelsar, Legatus of the XIVth Legion, Mr. "Such Devastation", was the viceroy of Ala Mhigo long before Zenos. He was the one who secretly spurred it's people to revolution against the Mad King… Only to swoop in and take the region for the empire once it was done.
It was the first step in his long campaign to conquer Eorzea, one that came to an end by our hands at The Praetorium at the end of ARR's initial MSQ.
24:26 this whole part here still hits hard for me tbh. And a lot of that is due to the nature of my wol being an isekai’d Genesis, meaning those flashbacks Fordola gets here? I headcanon that she got even more from Gen, seeing more of his journey, and the pain thereof, making it hit all the harder. I definitely did the same dialogue option too. It just fit, and resonated with Gen as a way of learning to accept how he can’t go back. Passing it on is only natural then.
24:47 For those who don't remember (it has been a while), this was a quote from Minfilia in ARR. It continues to be an unofficial mantra of the Scions, even after her… death/ascension to being "The Word of the Mother".
29:53 Yeah, I'm trying to think of any combination of Scions that are less scholarly than Lyse, WoL, and Arenvald and… coming up with a blank. Even Alisaie has basically a degree.
Playfriends, it's time to look at how Ala Mhigo's been rebuilding. This is your spoiler free lore comment!
A treasury is generally required to operate a government, but if a government is to be trusted, there must be transparency too. So Lyse has already got a handle on the important stuff here, even with her "punch first, logistics later" reputation.
When a crowd bays for blood, is it justice, or revenge? Welcome to the central theme that's going to be plaguing the recently liberated nations for some time.
6:20 – To remind us all, the Garlean military routinely conscripts people of the provinces and forces them to participate in military campaigns in far flung fronts, away from their homes. How many Ala Mhigans are still in the Garlean war machine. How many will be killed because their homeland has rebelled. How many are buried on foreign soil? How many are killing Dalmascans just for a glimmer of hope of going home, or just to live another day? Gosetsu cut down an untold number of lives to get back to Doma.
8:25 – Raubahn makes a good speech, but he knows the mob will be back. His words have kept the rage from boiling over today. Tomorrow is another matter.
10:00 – It's easy to picture Ala Mhigans wanting to execute those who served in the Garlean military, but it's really easy to skim over the more likely targets of vengeance: their own neighbors. Soldiers are held in the stockade, but your neighbors have little protections. How many people are being accused of collaboration? How many are being dragged into the square, having their hair ripped out, because they accepted the safety that came with a Garlean soldier's affections? How many people are having their skulls bashed in because they sold bread to a Garlean garrison? How many accusations are false, just because of some other grudge? The game will gloss over quite a bit of this, but just pointing out that this very real issue exists is a lot further than most stories go.
11:25 – The fact that Lyse has already thought this out shows that she's got a lot of chops in the leadership department.
I want to emphasize something that the game doesn't explicitly state. As of the liberation of Ala Mhigo, Fordola is 19 years old. Even with the timey wimey issues of an MMO, it's clear that Fordola has lived her entire life under Garlean occupation.
16:25 – Bringing up some old lore, Gaius van Baelsar wanted to conquer all of Eorzea. He lead their airship fleet at the Battle of Silvertear Lake. He dug up the Ultima Weapon and wanted to use it to crush the Eorzeans. And yet, even going back to 1.0, Gaius is considered a reasonable Garlean commander. He didn't want to bring down Dalamud and possibly wreck the world. He was considered a decent viceroy of his provinces; an authoritarian backed by the war machine but not a sadist.
17:18 – I can only imagine that this man will be what Fordola considers the baseline Ala Mhigan Resistance fighter for her entire life until she was captured. And she's not entirely wrong. How many Resistance members think the same thing?
18:25 – Aan are non-citizens of the Empire. But citizenship isn't enough out here.
19:00 – When people want to stone a pre-teen in the square, and kill your father before your eyes, cheering the whole time, what's the point of ever wanting to help them ever again?
23:40 – Did you remember that Fordola has the artificial Echo? The Garleans called her a Resonant. But it seems there's a big difference between the Echo and Resonance. To paraphrase it:
"She feels everything. She can't not." – Simon Tam, Firefly
I think we've got time for a bit of bonus lore! This story officially unlocks after the end of patch 4.1, but most of the key players have all been arranged, so I think we're safe to cover it.
All of the Skulls are dead, slain under the order of Fordola for Zenos's gambit. But, not quite. Hrudolf lives.
Let's talk about one of the three Custom Delivery quests for Stormblood. M'naago is organizing a widow and orphans fund for fallen members of the Resistance. And at the end of this patch, she'll be ready to ask for your assistance in getting trade items for sale. As you progress through the storyline, you'll meet Meffrid's wife, Geila, and their child. And you'll also meet Grede, Conrad Kemp's wife. In her age, she needs some assistance around the house, and she's got a helper: Hrudolf. One of Fordola's oldest comrades. He woke in the ruins of Specula Imperatorius and found he had nothing left. The Resistance wanted him dead, and Garleans had tried to kill him. He discarded nearly everything, and after the liberation of Ala Mhigo, he sought out the wife of the man who had convinced him to surrender before they were shelled. Grede knows who he is, and what he's done, and is of the same mind as her late husband: it's time to move forward. When M'naago finds them, she's shocked, but this little journey of providing a new life for those her comrades left behind has changed her. In stark contrast to her attitude at 13:03 of this episode, M'naago lets go of the last of her vengeance. The Skulls died at Specula Imperatorius. Hrudolf is just another Ala Mhigan to her, and deserves a new life as any other would.
Next time: We're back to the intricacies of politics. Foreign aid, charity, and job placement.
23:46 This remains one of my favorite moments in 14. I love how Fordola completely drops the act that she's been trying desperately to keep from cracking. The Warrior has been through so much across their journey, it would've broken anyone, even Fordola who's own struggles have been extreme! Still they never compromise on who they are, and they never stop moving forward for those they've lost and for those they can yet save. A great look at our main characters inner mind, and it's a pretty crucial moment for Fordola too, as she continues to make her way down her own path.
Fordola was a very powerful character for me personally. Not because I identified with her but because of the writing for her.
SPOILERS!
I often criticize stories for having antagonists with "reasons" but killing them off, often after they realize their folly and usually through self-sacrifice. Fordola, however, is left alive to see the error of the path she chose. Even more, she is also kept from sacrificing herself, like Ysayle, and must continue to grow. I cannot think of many other side characters in fiction that are given this amount of growth.
24:23 "The lies, the betrayal, the endless fighting… yet there you stand, unbroken."
I'd like to think that, right at that very moment, in the back of Durmin's mind, 'Fray' burst into some wretched cross between a peal of laughter and a throat-tearing scream.
– yeah, Ala Mihgo is such a wasted location for how much plot depends on it, but sure let's spend 3/4ths of the expansion in Japan instead
– i love that Raubahn is not asking for forgiveness, he's asking for patience. The revenge WILL come but only after they get Closure, otherwise is not gonna be a satisfying revenge
– one of the advantages of having 6 games worth of sequels that you can just keep adding new content. You can actually explore the Afterwards
– Lyse talking of Raubahn is basically FF16 & FF14 comparissons
– about time someone got to Echo into Durmin's memories & realize how full of it they are when calling him out
The Echo: Randomly Accessing Memories
This part of the story is when this game went from good to excellent for me, and I haven't looked back since. Arenvald and Fordola's stories are why Stormblood will always be one of my favourite expansions
That flashback was framed really strangely. It set out the point that quislings are only human in the eyes of their occupier when they are being useful but no better than other occupied people worth nothing when causing problems, which is true. But it frames the oppressed and angry as boorish thugs lending credence to the quislings cowardly self perceived position of themselves as more evolved than their oppressed counterparts. Denying the fact that they are seen as less evolved than the occupiers they suck up too. It is baffling.
The "damned if you do, damned if you don't" victim complex applied to the quislings creates an unhelpful "us vs them and them" perspective that paints the choice to be a quisling as a long suffering act of heroism toward a noble cause and paints those who do can not bare to sit comfortably in the occupier's shackles as foolish for not understanding that. Which is absolute nonsense. Quislings are the willing pets of their occupiers working against their own long term best interest. Painting quislings as bearing any noble aspect is irresponsible and unhelpful to people's judgement of real world events.
Even if you can't win, you stand up to the bully. You might lose, but do make sure you inflict lasting damage so the bully thinks twice about bullying someone else. You do not fall in line behind the bully. Quislings need to remember that.
After the general wrapped up his speech, I wasn't quite sure if the first guy's applause was meant to be sarcastic or not. It was such a good speech; I was relieved when the others finally joined in.
Fordola is my favorite Stormblood character. Don't get me wrong, she is a terrible person that did terrible things and is getting a lot less than she deserves, but boy, is she nuanced. I cant help but to feel bad for her due to the circumstances that made her a monster.
No city-state is perfect, but Ala Mhigo is my least favorite for reasons put on full display in this episode. Hard to disprove Garlemald claiming we're all savages with a angry mobs of Ala Mhigans stoning their own people.
Add that to the Autumn War, when Ala Mhigo declared war on Gridania unprovoked.
4:50 It would've been so much easier to just kill her in battle. The chance was there, and she deserves it.
7:28 The bold one to clap first.
8:28 Another reason to just end her earlier. After any trial, the people will want her drawn and quartered at this rate.
8:59 Which is perfectly doable… in an MMO. Most games
like 16don't have the luxury of that.9:18 They are traitors of the worst kind.
10:25 I mean, they just broke free of foreign rule. There's gonna be wounds of a very specific kind, that means that Garleans and Garlean sympathizers aren't likely to be welcome for… I'm guessing a century. Conservatively.
11:12 Might as well interrogate her first, while you have her. Then end her… however you want it to be remembered. Personally, I think hanging or firing squad fit nicely.
14:49 Okay, nevermind the firing squad, just hang her.
17:38 Nah, Fordola's not guilty of anything here. Her parents, though…
18:46 That's some lie you've told yourself, my dude.
20:53 What, and becoming the very thing the mob despises will help matters? That's also ignoring the fact that you've pointed out how fruitless the first part of this is.
23:13 I don't think he deserved to be stoned… but I have no sympathy to the actual traitors. You deserved better, but your parents were traitors to their own kind.
23:59 This… this is why you don't tell people what they supposedly do and don't know, how they feel, or that you understand how they feel. Durmin's a bit of an exception, but the point stands.
24:32 #3 is very much my style, but #1 feels more genuine. She did see. I'm not noble enough to pick #2, I'm not a saviour.
26:36 Alphinaud… the Echo is probably the biggest double-edged sword in Eorzea.
29:05 <o
33:06 Honestly? I think that's a fitting punishment in and of itself. Force Fordola to confront exactly what she did, from the other side. She also knows they want her to die.
33:40 That'd be an interesting Legion. Constantly living the experiences of the people they're oppressing.
Fordolas character, and her voice actor, are incredible
Fordola's arc is one of my favourite in all of XIV. She's an incredibly nuanced character and her VA does a fantastic job.
Fordola is one of the most interesting and nuanced characters in FFXIV, and this will not be the last time we see her. As she herself says, she's done horrible things, but she's had horrible things done to her in turn. It's one of those great examples were you can understand how a 'villain' got to be that way and why they made the decisions they did, even if you wouldn't have gone that path yourself.