Thread by @mintsui

onward and upward... or so the saying goes

~~this is a Heavensward replay thread, part 2/4~~

with the post-ARR plot taken care of and ishgard properly introduced, WoL continues his adventures in heavensward.

this is the part where FFXIV starts feeling like a true FF to me. now the MC has an actual party, and they're finally heading out, together, to adventure.

if i were to say anything about WoL at this point (and how i read meteor, really) it's that this is what makes him genuinely happy.

adventure and travel is in his blood. he's motivated by the desire to experience the world, and help others doing that. and now? he isn't alone.

(i am saying these things now because WoL isn't going to get a chance to be this happy EVER AGAIN)

and! i must say that alphy and WoL bounce off each other quite well in this regard. the boy has it in him too, you know?

that said, he is a CHILD and WoL is dragging him around D:

actually where is that tweet, i need it here

at least WoL is nowhere near a harsh taskmaster as stinky is (right now, he'll be yelling at him for shit healing in ShB) ... at least now they can enjoy the excitement of travel and not the hurdles

WoL and alphy's other traveling companions are the heretic prophetess (who warms up to WoL immediately - they obviously bond over the Echo, though I wish this had been shown more, since their circumstances are rather different)

and stinky, who is. well. he is an asshole.

ysayle has a much milder personality. she's so willing to teach, now that she's found an open ear to her words, but i think she's just.. gentle.. as well. a romantic at heart, which is why she ate up the shiva in the first place.

estinien is none of those. they don't get along.

their bickering gets so bad that alphinaud has to go "WoL, SAY SOMETHING!!" and

and

I AM SO SORRY. I *WISH* I HAD PICKED <constipated WoL grunting noises> BUT I DIDN'T, I HAD TO BE A GOOD BOY AND DO RP INSTEAD

YOU NEVER GET THIS SCENE AGAIN. I FUCKING WISH

anyways. to tell you the truth - the dravanian forelands, with the exception of these scenes, isn't terribly interesting. because this is where the plot has to (kinda) derail to introduce the beast tribe/primal of the expansion and really? the gnath are pretty boring. ._.

the only thing i can think of is that they're the only beast tribe who are aggressors. compared to the ARR tribes who are summoning primals because their heads are getting bashed in, the gnath just see opportunity in the war, and their hivemind wants to zerg rush at the dragons..

that we get cute, kind, gentle dragons introduced is really nice though? if midgardsormr is dragon daddy, then vidofnir is definitely dragon mom. she might bake us cupcakes.. STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE TO DRAGON MOM!!

how much of estinien's bloodlust is nidhogg's influence, again?

vidofnir: the gnath have summoned a pri--
alphinaud: say no more
WoL: /nod
estinien: *annoyed*
estinien: *snipes at ysayle to alleviate annoyance levels*
ysayle: 😡!!!!!

distorted thomas the tank engine theme gets progressively louder.mp3

i'm gonna have to reiterate what i said earlier and say, again: dravanian forelands does a GREAT job of showing you that what ysayle is saying is actually true.

dragons and ishgardians DID live in harmony at one point. the visual proof is everywhere. and it's GORGEOUS.

that none, literally NONE, of these locations - the city below anyx trine, the amphitheatre, the dragon barrows, all kept by man and dragon together - are not used for MSQ purposes is just baffling to me.

instead you have to deal with these silly bugs instead, DEAR GODS WHY

but hey. if there's anything in any piece of media you dislike, ever, you reject that reality and substitute your own. headcanon away!

i'm gonna do just that. i'd like to think that WoL saw all those locations - for himself - and came to his own conclusions.

WoL has an advantage over both ysayle and estinien. he's neither enraptured by dragons nor inured to hating them. all he needs to do is travel the world, with eyes unclouded, and see.

and after what he sees, i'd say he's beginning to believe. ;_;

seeing things like this - the same statue ysayle had been praying to when he found her, but with the human element burned off, removed, in a dragon's rage... it would be enough. it would make him want to put an end to the war, even if he had no stake in any of this before.

tl;dr WoL is highly empathetic and will commit to causes at the drop of a hat if he thinks he can make a difference. he's a tender hearted, gentle souled fool. to his own detriment. that's the character.

he also needs to kill ravana let's go.

.. man, i know i've given estinien a LOT of shit in this thread (i do it because i love him, dw) but he ... hits hard, and goes right through alphinaud. a harsh mentor, like i said.

... and what did i say about, "to (WoL's) detriment" ...

it doesn't help that ysayle and WoL come up with the most harebra... non-minded plan ever??

what's that, alphy? did the mean mr. stinky speak a truth and make you come to the horrifying realization that you two are all that's left of the scions???

i love alphinAUD SO MUCH I'M G

ysayle's plan is to get captured by the gnath so she can Words at ravana so they do that and WoL looks like such a tourist going in it's hilarious.

ravana is just a cool dude who loves his hive. i also feel like he'd be best friends with zenos.

before zenos eats him that is.

among WoL's (combat) companions, ysayle is unique in that she believes so hard she can turn herself into everyone's favorite Please Step On Me Ms. Final Fantasy Summon Character.

unfortunately it doesn't work and ravana just ends up playing the world's smallest violin for her.

also can you stop saying shit like this

this is like our #1 problem and would make any scion go >:I at you

but of course for WoL ravana is just on his tuesday schedule and...

MOM!!! MOM!!!!!!! MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOM!!! MOM!!!!!!! MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so ysayle and WoL go back to the stinky vath camp, ysayle coos over WoL (and his sue powers) for a bit, and...

NOOOOOO DON'T DO THIS TO THE POOR DARLING THATS SO MEAN NOOOOOOOO 😭❤️❤️❤️

ITS SO CUTE I NHGNHGNHGNGHNGH AAAAH MY HEART he literally just runs off to the side and sulks there ;_; my son . . . WoL's baby brother . . .

[WoL will now die for you. Not that he wouldn't have before.]

THUS with ravana deleted, dragon mommy opens the path to sohm al, and.. estinien and ysayle get into it again.

yeesh. i know esty has his reasons for hating dragons (and he's there to present a counterpoint to ysayle's idealism), but i wish he didn't come off so.. intense.

estinien's background is that he lost his entire village and younger brother to the dragons and basically grew up hating and training to kill them and did little else. (no hobbies indeed.)

he's a good soldier who doesn't see nuance. because he can't. excellent foil right there.

alexa, what is "foreshadowing"? any ffiv stan would see this coming a mile away.

correct me if i'm wrong, but don't dragoons literally drink dragon blood (ironically in a very similar manner that heretics do) that COMPELS them and makes them highly susceptible to mind control?..

will you look at this party pic i took

ffxiv is a mainline ff and this is the single-player rpg party look at tHEM ;______; my children

we're in moghome now, so ... the saga begins

in wooing the moogles, the group has to request aid from kan-e. ennnh. she can have some screentime, i guess.

kuplo here reiterates some of that "gods in the heavens" mythos... which i say the ancients technically were. this is probably a reach, but i like the idea a lot ngl.

kan-e's involvement in this (in the whole of HW i think?) is that she wants to come with. and her guards do backflips over it because the Pure Innocent Maiden shouldn't leave her grove!!

she negotates with the Magical Woodland Creatures for us tho. cuz. she's Pure, ya kno.

you know who *isn't* pure tho? WoL. WoL and stinky over there, who literally stink of blood which is the exact reason why the magical woodland creatures are HIDING FROM THEM.

then poor kuplo has to do backflips to justify WoL's - *checks achis* - 24,000+ kill count. yeesh.

i have to confess. when i was a teen, goth and angry and just getting into final fantasy, i hated moogles.

now that i'm twice as old, i just wanna squish their wigglebutts. LOOK AT THEM! LOOK! THOSE ARE THEIR TINY LITTLE HOUSES! THEY HAVE MOOGLE EAR CHIMNEYS! THEY LIVE THERE!!

ysayle and WoL may be enamored by the moogles (ysayle because girl, and WoL because he's just attracted to chores that need doing), but estinien... disagrees.

i think he also has a line about "ripping off their poms and shoving them up their ***", but i forget where.

(really. he complains about the moogles all through and eventually he lets them know it, and the moogles don't wanna end up on his pig sticker so WoL's chore quests just get fast-forwarded.)

the Pure Innocent Maiden doesn't like this though. she gives a warning. DUN DUN!!

still, the Pure Innocent Moogle sees it differently.

man, i love how they write estinien. he's flawed, deeply so, to the point of being concerning, but there's a mote of light and the game doesn't hesitate to show it to you every so often.

and the campfire scene that follows... *sigh* it's so GOOD. i'm just gonna quote/cap it all.

the thing that gets me about this classic FF "road trip" in HW is that you really see how these characters develop - with each and every one of them bouncing off another. it's beautiful.

most players would notice alphinaud's growth without it being "reiterated" here like this, yes. but here, the way it's done with a second character (a new one, who doesn't know him all that well and has previously been critical) works perfectly. a great writing choice.

ysayle's development is great too. prior to the road trip, we knew of her convictions, but not of her anguish over the harm she caused. we've learned that, and how she's sworn to atone - by taking us on this trip, which is all she can do.

together we're learning to fail better.

this trip has even changed estinien. his character arc is the one that best describes the grand theme of HW imo - facing an unpleasant truth and almost coming to terms with it, but still being unable to move on; either because circumstances don't permit it, or it's just... hard.

*sniffles*

they needed more time together. more time to reflect off of each other and change each other for the better . . .

estinien + ysayle + aymeric would have been the ishgardian dream team and the heroes ishgard needed but because the world is FUCKED UP aymeric is trying to do it all himself with his firmament saints. i hate this timeline i want a timeline where the ffiv/ishgardian ot3 real

(you cannot tell me that the only reason estinien fucked off to garlemald or whatever after HW was just because of his nidhogg nonsense. he just couldn't handle it after ysayle <redacted>. this girl shook him, that's the truth and YOU WILL NOT UNCONVINCE ME)

when the group finally gets to hraesvelgr, ysayle approaches him with open arms as if returning to a long-lost lover, and ...

it does not go as ysayle wanted. oh, it does not go as she wanted, as she /believed/, at all.

it's ... rather disconcerting how adamant ysayle is about how she thinks she's the "reincarnation" of a woman long dead. (and is food for thought re: azemet - i wager if WoL "awakened" and went to emet with open arms he'd get the same response.)

and.. you know how primals work.

ysayle talks about how shiva came to her. she heard the voice of god. she's ishgard's joan of arc, right?

well this is ffxiv and ... she basically just primalized and "tempered" herself. she believed this so deeply, it ensnared her.

it's so SAD. she believed her lie, and WoL did too.

it breaks my heart. she just collapses here and WoL reaches for her, but can do nothing. they're so similar in their gift and pure idealism that seeing this would shatter someone as empathetic as WoL with her.

all the sadder is that ysayle didn't even know the whole truth. she glimpsed it - and constructed her own version of events..

hraesvelgr is willing to share the whole truth, though. it's time for a lore drop, and my WORD, i love the art here SO MUCH. IT'S SO GOOD...

and remember, dragons aren't like mortals. a good parallel to make here is that - if you're this long-lived, nigh immortal, the pain you felt ten thousand years ago will still feel as fresh as if it were yesterday.

ah... ah.............

estinien doubts hraesvelgr' version of events, and he isn't exactly wrong to do so - hraes IS omitting something.

but hraes doesn't care to tell us everything. nor does he care that nidhogg is /torturing/ the sinners, and their children, and their children's children... forever.

ysayle picks herself up for a moment -

and is immediately shot down again, my word, is there NO END to the blows this poor girl will have to take?

saint shiva give her strength...

i hate this so much.

I HATE THIS SO MUCH

if i were headcanon any reason (other than her <redacted>) as to why ysayle pops up later in WoL's delusions later, this would be it.

throughout all their time together WoL can do NOTHING for ysayle and this characterizes a giant chunk of his relationship with her.

ysayle is one of the people who gives WoL purpose again in HW. he believes her. he's moved by her determination, her conviction. he may even be a little in love. he believes they can make a difference.

then it all comes crashing down around her and he can do nothing but watch.

... why wouldn't the ghost of her come back with a mantra of "i forgive you, i forgive you, i forgive you"?

.............. ah, but those are tales for another thread ...............

speaking of ...

back in CCH, haurchefant has some dialogue for the journey WoL embarks on. it's missable if you don't catch him at his post during the quests.

he speaks of his mother.

and how the hardship tempers WoL's heroic qualities, and how excited he is to see the changes the rigors of this journey shall work upon him.

hm.

.. that haurchefant always returns to his post in CCH and barely exists in ishgard outside of cutscenes bothers me. a little. but it's fitting.

he's unlike artoirel and emma - who can often be found loitering in ishgard in their noble clothing and only occasionally put on armor.

haurchefant is ALWAYS in his armor. always busy. always working, always soldiering and always at the ass end of their domain, out of sight, out of mind. it's excellent storytelling if you think about it.

again. fuck those useless fops edmont has for trueborn sons... >:I

anyway. i'll cease the character-building musings & references to DRK quests and get back to the MSQ.

aaaaaand i will complain about it because this is another point in HW where the storyline derails AGAIN to pick up the pieces left by post-ARR.

of fucking course.

so the tl;dr is that (i am fast-forwarding idc) WoL & estinien go to the aery to kill nidhogg, but they can't get inside it; and there is a subplot about enlisting Cid's aid, and before WoL can get on the manacutter and say "now THIS is podracing"

we go back to the uldah plot.

it drives me up the fucking wall.

like. do you know why i like ShB so much? because it doesn't have THIS. it's self-contained. YOU NEVER LEAVE THE FIRST. YOU NEVER HAVE TO HAVE THE BEAUTIFULLY FLOWING NARRATIVE INTERRUPTED IN THIS WAY.

HW has this problem because it's trying to fix the damages done by the "holy shit what if we never get to make another game" prospective ARR left behind.

SB has this problem because it's flip-flopping between two whole storylines, which both could've been separate expansions.

actually let me bitch and moan about this in the most succinct way i can express it.

now that i've calmed down a bit, i'll say this about the wrap-up of the ul'dah plot: it's not that bad. it doesn't take that long, but the shift is still jarring and the "we HAD to write this off" is evident.

also this: thank azeyma nick boulton carries this with his stellar VA.

also, i'm gonna eat some of the words i said in the earlier thread - this DEWLALA potato does show up again.

she's in the excruciatingly long cutscene where they explain the utter contriv... i mean PLOT around nanamo's survival. she chastises raubahn for being a murderer -

and in her next line (she gets a total of three (3) in this cutscene) she REINSTATES HIM AS GENERAL TO THE IMMORTAL FLAMES

bitCH what the FUCK, you LITERALLY JUST SAID, HE CHOPPED UP A SYNDICATE MEMBER INTO POTATO WEDGES

don't... don't question the writing here. they had to.

anyway tl;dr nanamo is fine nanamo is cute nanamo did nothing wrong, raubahn loves her and they have a great dynamic i love seeing them on screen, also raubahn got some brilliant character development i can't wait for him to save ala mhigo in SB like he's meant to..

(oh hi lyse)

also: alphinaud's crystal braves arc ends here.

it was a BRILLIANT arc. i know i shower alphinaud with love on the regular here, but he's such a well-written character. he develops - grows!! - so much.

he's so different from the smug anime brat he once was..

and his relationship with WoL?? HELLO?? IT'S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER SEEN

add this to the things square has robbed me of: a WoL + alphy hug scene. i want to squeeze this boy to my chest, i will protect him, i want to see him grow up healthy, is that so much to ask!!

characterization musing time: alphy getting supported by WoL & rising up from his hardship is almost exactly the same as WoL's relationship with <redacted>.

the difference is that WoL isn't as strong as alphinaud is. a storm is coming for WoL too, and it's gonna stay a while.

at the rising stones, alphinaud dismantles the crystal braves, but they're staying. aaaaaaaand he begins crying again.

*shakes WoL vigorously* just hug him for fuCK'S SAKE THIS IS SOMETHING THAT'S STUCK WITH ME SINCE 2.0

with the ul'dah plot taken care of once and for all, we return to ishgard, where estinien waits on us and the grisly task ahead.

he wants to report to aymeric first, though. which.. may be a good time to remember that aymeric didn't know about the /details/ of this journey.

this isn't too surprising to me. the ffiv stan in me says "aymeric/estinien are cecil/kain expies and they have a cecil/kain relationship as a result."

estinien does a lot to keep aymeric's hands clean. he knows aymeric too well, too, i think.

because the moment aymeric hears about this plan to kill nidhogg he leaps out of his chair and is like I'M COMING WITH YOU (and lucia is like HELL NO)

estinien knew aymeric would do this, he just wanted to avoid the unneccesary conversation lol.

cue a "stfu aymeric".

he does this to alphiebaby too and, on brand, it pierces through alphy. his voice here is so small, so broken..

estinien is right though - it's WoL who has the unhealthy habit of dragging the kids around. i look forward to estinien giving WoL a sound beating for this in EW....

... the whole journey. all the experiences, all the revelations, all the hopes and it still has to be estinien's way.

estinien wants this. he trained his whole life for this, and even trained WoL.

WoL doesn't. for once he believed it could be solved without violence. for once.

the long journey ends at the aery. it was always going to come to this.

nidhogg's words are a warning that go unheeded. even if he believed nidhogg, even if he knew what was coming, estinien would have killed nidhogg. whatever the cost.

there's blood in his eyes - literally.

i like how WoL isn't the one to do this. it's not his kill to make; it's estinien's. WoL barely even sees estinien and nidhogg take to the skies before the dragoon crashes back down in front of him in a shower of blood.

it's... pretty raw.

there's a particular scene here that's kinda hard to screenshot. it's when estinien is stabbing nidhogg right through the skull - it's the first time we see estinien's eyes, and that smile...

it lasts maybe three seconds, but it's enough for the game to make its point..

remember: estinien's been traveling with the one eye of nidhogg for very long time, and it's the equivalent of walking around with something radioactive in your pocket. it's been bleeding into him for far too long.

and he's already lost control with it before. WoL witnessed it.

nidhogg and estinien are the one and the same. they both want revenge for the same reason: the death of a sibling. they will both destroy everything in their path for it. they're the dragonsong war from both sides, personified.

no wonder the lines between them blur so easily..

not that WoL could be privy to this information, of course.

WoL can know other things. he suffers another echo seizure here and flashes WAY back to the time nidhogg was killed! by haldrath and his knights.

... he's not echoing another person here. he's echoing the EYE itself.

(binch if you can echo random things, so long as they're pumped full of aether, just echo the azem stone and

see what you get)

cue a whole dump of ishgard lore.

[i'm just putting this up here to reiterate: teledji potato wedgie was correct in saying that these guys would ABSOLUTELY invade southern lands were they not preoccupied with their endless war with dragons.

they have the ascians for it!!]

two more points to make (the tl;dr is that haldrath refused the throne and left it to the four houses, the end)

- any and all resemblance flavien de fortemps has to a current not!fortemps is completely intentional
- haldrath really thought it would end here and oooooh no.

back in the real world, estinien gives his own version of events. the tale he was told - and is more likely to disbelieve, now that he's experienced differently.

i like to think that here, WoL uses his keen intellect and observation skills to ask "why is that one yellow though"

[also can i ask something? why is it that everyone in XIV-world, estinien especially, so ready to believe in WoL's visions? do they believe everyone who fakes a fit and says they saw sCeNEs fRoM tHe pAsT? WoL should come off as a goddamn nutcase to any non-scion...]

estinien, no.............

:(

ysayle's barely moved since her rude awakening, and estinien is here to rub it in her face..

not really. estinien is insensitive, yes, but he doesn't mean to hurt her. she made a mistake, unknowingly - too bad, he's still not going to coddle her. he's a soldier, not a dreamer..

the whole truth is that hraesvelgr lied. if not directly, then by omission - he's the reason why nidhogg is even alive and around in the first place, to torture shiva's people for an eternity, like he said he would do! hraesvelgr knew all of this!

IT'S BRILLIANT!!!

WoL is so damn cute here too. he gives back hraesvelgr the eye like "well, let's make amends and end this conflict here and now!! i'm a good boy doing good thin--"

*starts seizing* "NO--"

and the echo flashback you get here is hilarious too, if you think of it like this:

this is a scene where hraesvelgr gets EMOTIONALLY BULLIED into letting nidhogg cause a thousand+ years of suffering, and all through it he's crying about his dead gf

(that he vored)

though, on a serious note and without spoiling the moment - this is just textbook depression. on a dragon.

hraesvelgr was so devastated by the loss of both ratatoskr AND nidhogg that he made a terrible mistake, then fell to apathy and washed his hands of the matter. or he tried.

... just as the ishgardians did, when they hid away their misdeeds and rewrote their history ...

and then there's this conversation. there's so many parallels in HW, it's DELICIOUS. nobody is in the right. nobody's untouched by the taste of revenge, nobody is innocent. nobody.

(spoilers: include WoL in this because he spends the first half of HW like "revenge bad, why can't the ishgardians and dragons just kiss and make up?" but then flips out and is just on a fucking murderous rampage for the entire second half.)

(revenge super bad)

the group then gets an urgent call from aymeric. ishgard is going up in flames.

... can i talk about how much i hate the forced "lore" around linkshell pearls? it really puts me off when a character puts two fingers in their ear like an FBI agent in my medieval fantasy game.

i suppose it's convenient to drive plot (and enable a lot of "pray return"s) but holy shit it's just so annoying to me. and it's not even necessary here - the group is headed back to ishgard regardless and FINDING that ishgard is in flames would hit harder if they let it.

news of the attack truly breaks ysayle her out of her stupor. this isn't her fault, but she will fix it. and, i think estinien's line about saving people from themselves will stay will WoL.

... this is the conclusion of our journey together. what a road it's been ...

as for why ishgard is going up in flames --

HOW DID THIS UTTER PIECE OF TRASH MANAGE TO FATHER A SON AS PURE AND GOOD AS AYMERIC DE BOREL????? HOW???????!!!

[it was the borels. they gave him love, not this hatred and hubris and pure distilled e v i l]

then in ishgard there's this scene which is all sorts of hilarious to me because haurchefant spots WoL and estinien, and is all like :) before he spots iceheart and then it's just a "WITCH DETECTED" moment for him

but estinien /shrugs and WoL /nods at him so he's okay

look at him

look at this man

this man would trust WoL with anything

ysayle makes a beautiful speech to her people - and the temple knights both - and puts an end to the fighting.

spoilers: the temple knights order her arrested and the rest of the heretics killed anyway.

haurchefant stops them. :')

now i will make it very clear that i am not ready to continue MSQ but *breathes into paper bag* okay i am ready to continue this livetweet. live.

we go back to the fortemps manor and edmont is all worried about haurchefant and he gives this line

*reaches for paper bag again*

in that small gathering in fortemps manor, when the truth of ishgardian history is mentioned, aymeric immediately leaps into action.

this has been boiling inside him for a long time. and i don't think it's just his unfettered idealism and discontent with the status quo.

aymeric is disturbed by the way things are in ishgard because of his bastard heritage. it allows him to see things more clearly AND blinds him in turn.

he presents it as thinking ahead and wanting to keep ishgard safe but he also wants to confront thordan for personal reasons.

this scene, i think, is very much about how being a bastard works in ishgard. the stain of bastardry can never be washed away, and it breaks these people, because no matter how hard they try, no matter how good they are, they will never be enough.

they try so hard.

when lucia drops the b-bomb in the room edmont cringes, goes dead silent, and looks away from haurchefant.

he doesn't say a SINGLE word or react to anyone else in the room until haurchefant speaks again.

when he does speak up it's only to - hopefully - prevent haurchefant from doing something stupid.

but against haurchefant's pathological desire to prove himself?? which is rooted in edmont's own error??

he is never able to refuse haurchefant anything for a reason.. and, oh...

oh...

NO!!!!!! YOU DUMB STUPID FUCK!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT /NOD AT HIM!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT REASSURE HIM!!!!!!!!!!! TELL HIM TO BREAK HAURCHEFANT'S LEGS SO HE STAYS RIGHT WHERE HE IS AT DADDY'S MANOR AND DOESN'T COME WITH YOU TO THE VAU--

YOU ARE ENABLING THIS YOU FUCK

*crawls into the paper bag*

it is safe here.

the name of this quest is "he who would not be denied" btw. fitting.

also it's interesting how these lines are all death flags with 20/20 hindsight but they're such typical haurchefantic, /cheer-laden dialogue, you might not notice it the first time...

.. i'm really glad i paid more attention to haurchefant this playthrough. i like him a lot - A LOT - now that i've got him figured out. i'll write meta on him later, but the tl;dr is: the entire crux of his character is him being a bastard, and it's great foundation. imo.

everything haurchefant does is based on his stained heritage. you notice this less only ingame, but his stories drive it home.

this following series of quests also serves to push the idea imo because suddenly you have the three! bastards of ishgard driving the plot...

case in point. i admit it was speculation on my part before but the buildup to meeting hilda REALLY hammers it in. a child who can't help who she was, cast by the wayside.

no, gibrillont. not the most original tale.

speaking of hilda, she really is that one character whose entrance makes me feel a great disturbance in Crystal... as if a thousand rpers suddenly cried out in agony and were suddenly silenced...

(seriously tho, she is brilliant and i love her.)