Endwalker Spoilers - Tumblr Posts

WoL: *facing the Endsinger* "Only the power of friendship can save me now..."

Zenos: "Hi!"

WoL: "..."

WoL: "no"

Fanart

FF14 - Nald'Thal

Under arid sky

With silk veils we weave a rainbow.

Voices lifted high,

Dreams upon our backs we carry.

When day beckons night

As desert resident's time may slow.

Drifting hand in hand,

Life, death, will follow.

This was no longer the Warrior of Light sitting next to him, now recounting events in a distant, dissociated monotone that directly contradicted the rapid rise and fall of his chest, his body reacting to threats no longer present, desperately searching for a way to fight back.

FFXIV Writes 2024 - Prompt #2: Horizon

Spoilers for the end of base-game Endwalker lie below the cut. You have been warned.

As a new dawn broke across the horizon at the edge of creation, Xander found himself face to face with one singular noisome loose end. A man who’d followed him across the depths of space at incomprehensible speeds to come to his aid in the final battle against the Endsinger, all to ensure that naught remained to forestall his precious rematch.

Zenos stood before him, hand extended to offer challenge and ‘singular bliss’. And as much as Xander wished to his very soul that he could take the bastard up on his offer to just leave him behind without fighting him at all, he knew that he couldn’t risk what Zenos might do if denied once more.

He nearly burned the world to cinders just to force me to fight him last time. I shudder to think what he will destroy to earn my ire if I don’t stop him here and now.

Xander closed his eyes, clenching his fist at his side as Zenos’ taunting goad of “Is that not so, adventurer?” echoed in his mind. Even now, even after everything, Zenos insisted that they were one and the same. Two souls driven by the thrill of combat, the mortal peril of dancing on the edge of life and death.

And maybe he was. Once upon a time. He’d willingly gone to the Bloodsands for a reason. Maybe that was still in him.

But Zenos didn’t need to hear that. Never. Not from him.

Part of Xander burned with the desire to wreak bloody vengeance upon this foul demon that had haunted his thoughts for far too long now. To make him pay for the utter violation, the humiliation of stealing the body he’d just made comfortable for himself for his own. To rend him limb from limb for all the harm he’d done to Etheirys.

But even his hatred would bring Zenos joy. And frankly, Xander didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

He couldn’t leave. He had no choice but to indulge him in his little fantasy now. But he could make damned sure he derived not one bloody onze of the satisfaction he so desired.

He opened his eyes to behold his opponent in this strange dawn at the terminus of all, and, with his face set in a mask of determination, firmly replied, “Think what you will. But I’m not letting you leave this place.”

Zenos’ eyes slipped closed. Xander felt a momentary sting of petty delight at the silent sigh of disappointment writ large on his face.

And then, he had to open his godsdamned mouth.

“So, you would still play the hero.” Zenos opened his eyes, his grim expression shifting for a manic smile as he continued, “No matter. In acceptance, you reveal your deception. You know full well what we are. What we seek. To shine incandescent in death’s shadow!”

Xander’s eyes narrowed as he pulled out his codex, readying himself for another battle to the death against this one stubborn cockroach that refused to stay where the hells he belonged- in his memories. Shine incandescent in death’s shadow, he would indeed. And Zenos’ candle of life would be extinguished for good and all, even if it took his own life to do it.

FFXIV Write | Day 3 | Tempest

Spoilers: Endwalker Level 90

Characters: Annie Ruthie (Warrior of Light) Zenos yae Galvus

See end of work for notes ^-^

Continued in entry Steer

⋆ ★ ⋆

Annie hated it. Hated that he knew them almost as well as they knew themself. Hated that, despite all the rage they felt towards him, they yet understood him.

Every ounce of fury multiplied with each word he spoke; yet they allowed him to prattle on about their journey, their motivations.

They could feel the light seethe within them, burning in the places it had left its permanent scars. The fog in their eye threatened to cloud their vision entirely, before they blinked the encroaching blindness away.

They winced as the word ‘adventurer’ rolled off his tongue; they were so much more than that, but also nothing more than that. And then…

“That, I can’t deny,” they hissed.

The smile that spread across Zenos’ face only stirred the temper that built up within Annie. They gripped the hilt of their daggers with fury as strong as a thousand tempests, bearing all the rage and pain they had ever felt into their blades.

⋆ ★ ⋆

This is the first entry in which I'm truly pleased with the outcome. While short, I believe the brevity assists in conveying the futile emotions of Annie in these moments. When paired with its sister entry, I'm very happy with the outcomes.

FFXIV Write | Day 1 | Steer

Spoilers: Endwalker Level 90

Characters: Annie Ruthie (Warrior of Light)

Continuation of entry Tempest

⋆ ★ ⋆

The incessant chirp fell quieter and quieter, dipping into the idle sound of the stars. The fog of their vision fought with the encroaching darkness for control, as they felt their consciousness suddenly dip into The Lifestream.

Zenos’ words rung continuously in their mind as their body traversed The Lifestream. ‘What of you, my mirror?’ he had said. Annie hated that he was right. That they were but a more nuanced reflection of him.

Inaudible voices rang out in the background. Was that… Alphinaud? And… Y’shtola? Annie allowed themself to spend what little aether they could grasp concentrating on the calls of their friends. And, as their last expense, they allowed the voices of their comrades to steer them back to consciousness.

⋆ ★ ⋆

Close in he distance really means a lot, as does Endwalker, for both Jira and myself.

@cataclizard

ZENOS “CAN YOU HURRY THIS UP SO WE CAN FIGHT ALREADY?” YAE GALVUS

I am the very model of a modern Warrior of Light

I’ve had to unite many sides; from dragonflight to socialite.

I’ve gone to different worlds and defeated Primal’s left and right

Ultima Thule was different, though, Endsinger gave me quite the fright.

But I challenged Zenos at the end and fist-fought him with all my might

The bad guy’s gone and once again my friends and I have won the fight

So let’s celebrate and take a break it’s time to settle down they said,

But if I’m not there to save the day then everyone could wind up dead…

All: IF THEY’RE NOT THERE TO SAVE THE DAY THEN EVERYONE COULD WIND UP DEAD All: IF THEY’RE NOT THERE TO SAVE THE DAY THEN EVERYONE COULD WIND UP DEAD All: IF THEY’RE NOT THERE TO SAVE THE DAY THEN EVERYBODY'S GONNA WIND UP DEAD.

I‘m very good at pushing past my limits when I take damage

In combat I’m unmatched my job-stones give me quite the advantage

In short, in matters that excite like outright getting in a fight I am the very model of a modern Warrior of Light. All: IN SHORT, IN MATTERS THAT EXCITE, LIKE OUTRIGHT GETTING IN A FIGHT THEY ARE THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN WARRIOR OF LIGHT

this is how that one part went right

Huh. Yeah, it's actually kinda big thing to get to call him as Raha in french, didn't know you english speaker got deprived of it.

Is that also the reason lot of people who played the english versuon don't know that Rael was a woman having taken her brother Identity? I'm shouid compare note.

Prefacing to say I’m not a WoL X G’raha shipper (but I get it), but even so, after everything they’ve been through together I really wish I had the option to address him as Raha, like Krile does.

Like. When we were going through Crystal Tower, he was a new friend I’d only just met. But after Shadowbringers? After Endwalker? After Ultimate Fucking Thule? What close relationship can there be than “I was willing to die to ensure you made it to the end, because I trusted you to see it through”

Hydaelyn in Endwalker

At the risk of looking stupid online I'm going to field my perplexions about Hydaelyn that've been bothering me for months lol This post is... a little Hydaelyn critical. But I do offer that in good faith, I LOVE the character and I'm not trying to just trash her, I'm genuinely interested to hear other perspectives about it. (But please be nice, everyone is entitled to their own take)

Also this is not in response to anyone else's post. I haven't even seen any Hydaelyn posts circulating lately. I'm not vagueing anyone or trying to start drama. Just trying to sort out my own feelings about this character.

So my main takeaway from MSQ was that love is, ultimately, what saves you. That humans (including Ancients!) aren't perfect, and cannot love perfectly, but the shared love of you and others is still what saves you.

And, also, that grief is a part of life. Mistakes are a part of life. Conflict and loss happen, but they need not destroy you. Stand for doing right as best that you can, forgive yourself and keep trying, keep loving - both yourself and others.

There was an incredible amount of emphasis on not judging or hating one's enemies, about accepting the humanity in all of us and coming together, which I really loved.

There was also, of course, a huge rejection of self-sacrifice and martyrdom.

I saw all those themes in the Dark Knight quests a LOT (especially before the English translation changed so many scenes), and I assume Ishikawa was continuing that theme from Shadowbringers onward.

So again! I don't hate Hydaelyn!

But I feel like... at least in the English translation, she is still treated with excessive reverence, like a goddess, by the Scions - even ones it didn't really make sense to after her origin came out, like Y'sthola.

And at least on my first playthrough, while I like Venat a lot and love the drama of the Final Days pushing everyone into points of desperation, to their breaking points, and her decision to sunder the world definitely did ultimately help (help!) make it possible for us to defeat the Endsinger... I dunno.

To me she was still subject to the same arrogance as the rest of the Ancients. Whether her decision paid off or not, she still took into her hands the fate of the entire Star, she still made a decision that would result in millions of deaths.

And if we're going by Hydaelyn's own assertion, that each reincarnation is their own person, not just a missing piece of a whole... then to achieve her goal of a better world, she killed all the remaining Ancients except those three.

She chose to create a world where death and trauma would affect generation after generation - and she can say that it was for the greater good, for the world to survive. But that was essentially the Convocation’s justification too, in creating Zodiark and orchestrating the Rejoinings. Committing genocide to prove that genocide is wrong… is not noble.

The cutscene with her sundering the world, where the people insist they'll return to a world free of sorrow underneath a burning sky, could also NOT be how it actually happened. It had to be representational of her feelings and conclusion. Becoming Hydaelyn took coordination with her followers and planning.

At least in English, idk about the original Japanese, Hythlodaeus's shade describes the time of the Sundering as if the world wasn't in utter ruin at that point. It was beginning to heal, they had restored some natural systems, but the Ancients were short in numbers. At that point, they were done sacrificing their own people, in time they were going to sacrifice other life - plants and animals, to restore those lost brethren.

At the very least, Hythlodaeus's completely different account shows that the two sects of people post-Zodiark were viewing their sacrifice and end goal in completely different ways. Ethics aside, whether the competing goal was achievable or not… we will never know, because Venat stopped it from happening.

But I don't think either recounting has a monopoly on the truth. There was no One Truth, there were just competing needs and perspectives. And though Venat insists that unity is necessary to avert the Endsinger - she perpetuates this division. Azem refused her followers call to help summon Hydaelyn, and I think that's significant.

But I'll also acknowledge that Azem didn't manage to save the Ancients, either.

And you could argue that the Ancients were their own worst enemy. They kind of were.

Hermes was a really, really great caricature of severe, untreated Depression. And he had the powers of a god. His creations were sent to find a specific answer in the world beyond, and like their creator, they didn't have the tools to process hearing an answer other than what they were expecting. They were trapped in their own perspective. He was looking for answers in the stars, instead of in himself. Their own pain and inability to engage with emotion in a healthy way overwhelmed every encounter they had and created the very reality he so feared.

He did not use the proper channels for peer review before sending them out on their mission. Those rules, those checks and balances, that community approach to design, existed to protect the Ancients from their own power, and he deliberately acted in secret. He isolated himself from society, convinced himself his pain was something nobody could understand, made an island of himself and doubled down on his own jaded beliefs.

I don't know what kind of mental health facilities were available to the Ancients - we just don't have that information. But I do know that he was treated with patience and forgiveness by a significant number of colleagues, and his quirks weren't held against him. People did try to help and accommodate him, even if they didn't always understand. He had been promoted to a powerful position. I don't know if it's fair to blame anyone in particular, or even their society, for what happened. Because again... everyone was doing the best they could with what they had.

If anything, the problem was that literally any Ancient could have made a similar mistake in the right situation. They were ALL that powerful. Eventually chaos would happen. Sundered souls can certainly create destruction, but not on the same scale.

I don't personally agree with Hydaelyn's decision not to reach out to the Convocation. I understand being careful, and thinking through what the next step should be before acting. But there's a LOT of "maybes" in this argument:

And ultimately, it's her doing the same thing as Hermes, putting the power of judgement over an entire people in her own hands. She's assuming that she is in a unique position to decide the fate of the entire Star. It's not evil. But it's arrogant. She wasn't special among the Ancients, gifted with some unique wisdom. She was doing the best she could from her own perspective.

Plus... if half your population, and then another half again are about to sacrifice themselves... what have you got to lose by outing Hermes and/or trying to work with the Convocation to avert that loss of life? We don't have all the details, I'm willing to accept that there were circumstances that made it impossible, or at least made Venat decide against trying it. But even so. What did you have to lose leading up to the summoning of Zodiark? There was already panic and destruction at that point.

Hydaelyn sacrificed a lot of people to accomplish her goals. She made a goddess of herself and manipulated people like Minfilia on that basis. She killed so many children and stole so many lives even just by reincarnating Minfilia over and over on the First. She misrepresents the nature of the Ascians to the WoL, keeps secrets, and essentially charges you with being a crusader in her Holy War.

It's Emet- Selch who tries to bridge the gap. Not Hydaelyn. It's him who's willing to consider trying to achieve his goals without bloodshed, if you, the WoL, are strong enough. He says this to himself, out of anyone else's hearing. There's no reason for it to be a lie.

And just before Mt. Gulg, you can see Emet starting to question his beliefs about humanity because of the WoL's accomplishments. Hydaelyn has nothing to do with that. It's all you. And Emet succumbs to his own weaknesses too, so we never get to know what that might have happened if you'd had more time with him. He's not better than her.

But I think it's significant that he's the one who reaches out. Who's willing to consider a compromise at all.

In war you make sacrifices, I get that. But she was not more heroic, somehow, than the Ascians. Both sides were doing terrible things and denying the agency of mortals in order to achieve their ideal world.

So to me... she was not a benevolent incomprehensibly wise mother figure. Much like in real life we go from being kids who trust our moms implicitly, to adults who realize our mother was human and made mistakes, I think we’re supposed to recognize that Hydaelyn didn't do everything right and its our job to carry the future forward for subsequent generations, to learn from what came before, and hope that our own children do the same and forgive us for our own mistakes.

I think its very important to note that the WoL is just as much the Convocation's creation as Hydaelyn's. Without being rejoined as many times as they were, the WoL wouldn’t have survived. She saves you from the Ultima Weapon, Emet-Selch saves you from Elidibus, and its their powers combined that save you and your friends from the Endsinger. You are the legacy of each side’s imperfect love, equally.

WHICH brings me to my point of perplexion. Hydaelyn continues to be venerated. NPCs who know what happened continue to emphasize her side of things. I feel I must be missing something, because to me, the finale of Endwalker essentially shattered any idea that this was a Light vs Dark kind of story. People made choices. People made mistakes. It wasn't good or evil. It was human. We survived in spite of our mistakes because love was more powerful than our imperfections.

The Scions sacrificed themselves one by one just like the Ancients. And got brought back using energy from the Star... not all that different than what the Ascians had planned to do with their own brethren. I just don't see much functional difference there in the sentiments between either side.

I don't think we're supposed to hate Hydaelyn. I don't think she was evil. But I don't think she was better than the Ascians.

So while I don't expect, or want, characters to be condemning her left and right in the narrative, it's still baffling to me that there's such consistent, explicit reverence for her.

I remember reading this and being like: "Bitch :V... I'm gonna punt your ass so many time while farming, and I will enjoy every instant"

I think it's a case of: Oh my gods lesser and greater, even surrendered and broke in hundred of reincarnation, they still are on their bullshit. Your original version of an insult of scientific, philosopher and sociologist screwed the world. You Amon version is also tring to fuck everyone over. Stop

People getting weird about Hermes/Fandanel is so weird to me because EW was so clear about the fact that Hermes and Danny Boy were not the same people.

Hermes was sundered. He was not one of the original three who got out without getting shattered into 14 peices. The person that Emet recruited was just Hermes' reincarnation during the Allagan Empire. The person that Emet recruited was not his friend. And even he knew that.

Hermes, for all intents and purposes, died during the original Final Days. And anyone who actually watched the cutscenes and read the dialog would know that. Only four people made it out of the Final Days and Sundering in one piece. Emet, Elidibus, Lahabrea, and Venat. One of whom had literally become a primal.

So when Emet recruited Amon for fucking the whole world up, he wasn't getting someone who was his friend. He was hoping to get someone who was going to help them with their goals but he picked the wrong life time for that. Amon was living in a time of excess and plenty, living in a position that allowed him to actually enjoy it, and found that he was listless and without purpose. He was a master with the body and could do nearly anything with or to it, as evident that he replaced one of his peer's head with three hounds as a prank.

Near everyone that's come out of the Allagan Empire have been the same kind of destructive, self-centered people with the exception of maybe three characters. Of course Hermes' reincarnation was going to fly off the handle the second he had some real power and inherited the pain of his original incarnation. There was no other ending for him. Maybe if someone, anyone, had intervened and set him on another path Emet would of picked him in another or on another shard.

But the guy we met in Elpis was not the guy who left us in the body of a dead Garlean in the heart of the Garlean capital city. The guy we met in Elpis was not the guy we put down in the Aetherial Sea. The guy we met in Elpis has long since been dead.

them

gift for an Ardbert enjoyer

Have some low quality shitposts

Endwalker gposes hit different

brave little spark

A guide to Alkali and Zenos, by Alkali and Zenos

Inspired by nights-at-crystarium!