There’s a claim that keeps coming up about one of Final Fantasy XIV’s most longstanding and famous characters. A criticism so stark that it’s hard to imagine it being levelled at a character who’s been active for over a decade… and yet, for all its strangeness, feels for all the world like it could be right. Today, we’re trying to analyze one of the biggest complaints about FFXIV’s writing: Has Y’shtola actually had any character development? And why exactly is such a simple question so hard to answer?
Section timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
1:20 – Story Review
13:09 – So, HAS she had character development?
17:40 – Why is this so hard?
23:53 – How I’d write a Y’shtola story
30:02 – Outro
Questions, suggestions, other characters I could make a video discussing like this? Drop a comment here! You can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Cleretic/ if you want more of my thoughts on all manner of things that don’t really matter!
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Quick share of my feelings before watching the video:
Y'shtola is the Scion that i like/connect the least. I don't think there is a perfect character in XIV and i don't expect Y'shtola to be the one to change that, but the only thing i think when she is brought up is how she is used as a plot device and how everything she does is always the right answer. Think of Urianger, they are both "scholars" in search of knowledge but what separates both for me is how flawed Urianger is, not always he does the best thing and not always we should be cheering for him or expect him to bring the solution to our problems. He is a more human character, and for me that's something i can say about most of the scions except Y'shtola.
I dont wanna drag on or else im not gonna get my irl job done, but its really interesting to see the feelings the community have for her, and at the same time, a lot of controversy.
I love your videos!
Thank you for uploading!
Actually do kinda agree, to a point. She has had development, but her actual uses as a character by the writers have devolved into a deliverer of "sassy" one-liners and exposition dump.
I still enjoy Y'shtola a lot but, yeah, this video summed it up pretty well, I also enjoyed the ideas you came up with for what an arc for her could be.
And to also throw it out there I'd like to get to know more about her (How she ended up with the Sharlayans and Matoya when she was a child for example), but I imagine this also falls under the "she's been around too long" problem to have it be done outside of like, a yellow sidequest, or other external media.
Y'shtola has such a good character design, it's disappointing that she's relegated to supporting cast
Thank you so much for this video! I saw those posts you were talking about and, as much as I felt like defending her, I also felt compelled to agree about whether or not she got a character arc. I'm so happy I got to watch your view point on her that gave me a lot think about and even a perspective I never realized. With that said, do you think Y'shtola's weird presence is a result of writers changing around?
A little summary of my own thoughts on everyone's favorite catgirl.
I feel like Y'shtola was always in an odd position because her basic character traits worked best when the scions were a small scale organization with everyone doing their own thing, sure there were characters who kinda filled her general role in the group, but since you hung out with them mostly on their own it didn't really matter too much. You'd think shrinking the cast would help with that issue, but you still have the same issue of "Y'shtola's role in the group dynamic is covered by other characters" especially with Urianger, G'raha, and Krile getting more focus and going through development. She can't just be "The Smart One" in the group because as of Endwalker everyone in the scions (except maybe Estinien, Thancred, and the WoL) could qualify as the smart one. She's got a very strong personality, she's fun to be around, but that personality is most of what she is. If she was less popular she might of been one of the scion casualties of ARR/Heavensward alongside Minfilia and Papalymo.
It feels like ever since Heavensward and the shift to more character focused stories the writers have had no clue what to do with her, which is probably why she got essentially written out of Stormblood. I feel like Shadowbringers was meant to be a reintroduction to the older scions, giving Thancred, Urianger, and Y'shtola all shiny new coats of paint. They get a bit of offscreen character development to move them into an interesting new starting place and to allow the player to re-familiarize themselves with those three, they get more story focus since all three of them (to varying degrees) have not really done much since ARR (Thancred had gone through the most, which is probably why he's the one in ShB who gets the most focus and development), and from that new starting point they can take these characters in any new direction they want. But I think it's obvious that despite that reintroduction, the writers still didn't know where to take Y'shtola, as she's probably the scion with the least amount of focus in the msq alongside Krile (who was a side character and not really part of the main cast until like right now and was basically written out of two expansions in a row).
The post patches of Endwalker have me a little hopeful at the very least that the writers are looking to focus a bit more on her, since we've probably spent more time with Y'shtola as the focus in these patches than we have in a while. Though the latest patch has me worried they might wrap up the entire plotline within the patches, or push the focus away from Y'shtola and on to a more established character like the Alisaie or to a newer character like Vritra or Zero.
I don't think Y'shtola has no plot hooks going for her but the hooks she does have would require the writers to give her a lot of focus, really let us spend time with her and idk if they're willing to do that. Seems like an ouroboros of an issue where the writers are afraid to mess too much with Y'shtola because of both her popularity and a lack of material to work with and because of that hesitancy Y'shtola doesn't get any new materiel to work with, which just makes the writers more hesitant to explore her character. It's a shame.
This honestly makes me feel better because it puts into words what I couldn't clarify about why she's one of my least favorite Scions, despite having really enjoyed her in a lot of the scenes she's in.
Great video essay! For me, Y'shtola usually gave me the feeling of a person who uses her ability to know almost everything as sort of an armor or mask. She seems like the most introverted character in regards to her own personal feeling and she already have proven to be able to stand up to immense opposition without breaking down. There was only a few tiny moments where a slight quiver in her voice broke through that armor. Because of that, I think she would have to be placed in a different kind of situation that is more personal. Stuff like her using that nyxi summon spell and before that, having that book bonk her on her head brought out something different from her. It is because of that, where I believe her character arc can be more like a character reveal. Where breaking down the walls she's built around herself shows us a different, but still her, side.
I kind of wonder if Y'shtola ever becomes the focus of an expansion like how it would be done as well. Atm, I can only imagine a "what if" situation where she gets split into separate parts of herself and that's where we learn more about her. Haha, sorry, I feel like I'm rambling, but it was all inspired by your video essay and how well thought out it was! Cheers! 🙂