In no other MMO (or Final Fantasy for that matter) would I be riveted by peace negotiations.
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0:00 – Introduction
0:32 – QUEST: “Parley on the Front Lines”
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Edited by Daniel Floyd
♫ “Pray Return” by Chris Logsdon
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Just wanted to give another reminder to be careful with cryptic teases and spoiler-adjacent hints!
I know the Shadowbringers hype is getting real, and there's a strong temptation to call out all the foreshadowing or write up "everything we know so far" info-dumps. But highlighting every scrap of info which surrounds future reveals – essentially rolling out an evidence board and drawing giant red circles around the remaining unknowns – can also feel pretty spoiler-y to someone enjoying the ride for the first time. A narrative rug pull doesn't hit quite the same when you have a bunch of folks "casually" pointing at the rug and saying "Weird, it doesn't seem to be glued to the floor or nailed down or anything! Isn't that interesting…"
I mention this more for y'all's benefit than for mine; it's pretty easy for me to remove comments that overdo it, but I do feel bad doing so when it's clear the author spent quite a bit of time writing it and I don't have any good mechanism for communicating why their comments sometimes disappear.
Thanks!
When I first played through this and Varis brought up how Eorzeans tried to summon the Twelve, I said out loud "I WONDER why they decided that was the course of action that they took. It's not as though Garlemald was trying to DROP THE LESSER MOON on top of them leading to Bahamut being released and causing the 7th Calamity… Oh wait, that IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED YOU BLOODY HYPOCRITE!"
This scene singlehandedly turned Varis from a villain I didn't care about (thought he was just a generic RPG Evil Emperor) into a villain I absolutely can't stand because he's written too infuriatingly well.
Somebody has to say it…. Nice.
Meeting the Emperor for peace talks requires Eorzea's champion to dress appropriately. I wore my chocobo suit.
this is SUCH a fascinating patch on retrospect I swear. not going any further but good lord. I loved this shit the first time around (though I did pick the more dramatic answers; shit happens when you isekai a drama king like Genesis lmao), but the second time is even juicier.
Only two cutsenes played in sequence, but boy were they good. I would definitely be bad at politics cuz I'd have just told Varis that the Ascians really aren't that hard to kill considering our new method (which an empire would surely be able to refine and mass produce) and whatever Giaus is cooking with.
Parley with the Emperor on episode 69?
N I C E
When I reached the parley scene I had a strong urge to redo the scene with a joke head on. Like a pig or frog head. Varis made me so mad I wanted to give him the respect he deserved lol.
Just want to give a shout out to how much Nanamo's growth is shown off in these tense scenes. She has had to do a lot of maturing in her role as Sultana and member of the Eorzean Alliance. Not only with her dealings with the Syndicate or releasing Raubahn, but now getting to the point of such respect by her couterparts in the Eorzean Alliance that she be the one to effectively lead talks with Varis… and deal the decisive blow against him at the end of the talks.
This part of this particular patches content really shows that when FF gets political it is also some of its best and tense.
Varis: I want to oppose the Ascians!
WoL: Good!
Varis: … with eugenics!
WoL: … no…
Yeah, Varis can go pound sand…
Varis really looked at Aymeric and said “you have too many parent issues to be sitting at the adults’ table. Go eat your chicken nuggets at the kids’ table with Zenos.”
Those cutscenes were written so well, I was on the edge of my seat just like Durmin was!
The writers have beautifully captured a display of oppressor cultures' twisted cultural conditioning and ingrained complete detachment from reality in favour of comforting lies and, most importantly, ego. This was a masterful depiction of the frustration of trying to reason with, compromise, or discuss history with an imp, or explain why colonialist expansion, ethnic cleansing, subjugation, dehumanisation, and genocide are all wrong, only to have the imp turn around on a lie and shut down your human decency argument with half truths offered from a very specific perspective which villifies the oppressed and omits any fault on the oppressor's side, lionizing and freeing the oppressor of any responsibility even colouring themselves the misunderstood hard-done-by underdog hero.
Where had this profound understanding of imp nature vanished while writing Valisthea's politics?
I just find it amazing that even in the last stretch of content for Stormblood, the "make the Empire a more fleshed out and interesting threat" mission continues and finds time to actually make Varys… god damn Varys… he of the carved face scowl who wears half a car on his shoulders… into a character with a clear viewpoint and motivation…
He's a massive hypocrite, sure… but even that is now somehow part of what makes him scary… cause he actually believes it…
And they did it all with about half an hour of scenes in between the 4.4 and 4.5 content patches…
1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a race war! 5, 6, 7, 8, I alone can dictate fate!
So Varis brings up a lot of old wounds in the Parley. Let's go over them.
First up, the claim that Garlemald is reclaiming ancestral lands they were forced from. This is actually true… to a point. We found out just recently in the Alliance raid series that the Garleans are descended from the people of Ivalice, specifically mostly people of Goug from over a millenia ago. They immigrated throughout the central continent Ilsabard and eastern continent Doma, but were seen as outcasts and oppressed by the other races due to their lack of ability to use magic. Over time, they were slowly driven north to where Garlemald sits today, a frozen wasteland in Northern Ilsabard.
But remember kids: when education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor. Just because they were oppressed and forced from lands does not mean they are right to now take those lands and oppress its people. Also that claim doesn't really work when they are invading Eorzea, a land with no history (to our knowledge) of driving Garleans from them (well, not until recently).
His other claim that Eorzea is still having trouble with the beastmen rings a little hollow when it was Garleans that set in motion the summoning of Lakshmi and Tsukuyomi, but it's true that there has been a lot more primal summoning in Eorzea's recent past than in Garlemald (to our knowledge).
I feel the struggles of Doma and Ala Mhigo are recent enough to not dwell on.
Varis makes a good point that peace only happened after Nidhogg was slain. But he neglects to mention that Nidhogg was singular in his want for suffering, which was not reflective of all of dragonkind.
The most damning one of them all is the jabs against Merlwyb. Putting aside that they are, you know, pirates, Vylbrand was not uninhabited when the pirates claimed it. The history of Limsa Lominsa is one of colonialism, paved with the blood and destruction of homes of Sahagin, Kobolds, and Qiqirn.
The Twelveswood was also a story of colonialism… Kinda. The Elementals determine who can live in the Twelveswood and, for a long time, that didnt include the playable races. Only in the past era were they allowed in, but the Ixal took issue with that. This lead to the Ixal being forced out of the Twelveswood (or at least to the edges of it), which means, yeah, they kinda were forced from their homes. But that was through their own hostilities and Gridania would welcome them in the Twelveswood again if they seek peace.
But the last jab he makes is against all of Eorzea, who tried to invoke summoning of The Twleve to stop Dalamud from falling at the end of 1.0. This was some desperate times, desperate measures shit, which only occurred because of Garlemald's aggression and destruction. Its easily Varis's weakest retort.
Love Durmin's outfit.
'You know guys… I'm getting really sick and tired of 'being the better person'. All I'm saying is that the Garleans have shown that they have a tendency to stall when their leaders are taken out. I'm pretty sure taking this chump out before he leaves the tent can only bring good things. No? Really? No one wants to go with the decapitate the snake plan? Alright. I will tell everyone that I told you so if letting him live screws us over though. and don't pull that 'only savages would attack an emissary of peace' stuff, I met Asahi and somehow i wasn't the one who stabbed him.'
This was an excellent scene and probably my favorite from Stormblood's patches.
Somehow it hadn't occurred to me that Eorzea's attempt to Summon the Twelve would be considered the single-most grievous offense to Garlemald's anti-Primal ideology in history.