Aqua's Bubble

do you all remember in the bahamut coil raids when alisaie's character growth is affirmed by her no longer just parroting her grandfather's views because they were her grandfather's and she loved him, but because she had finally taken those views as her own and believed them fully with her own heart? that's also wuk lamat's main point of growth.

there's a reason why wuk lamat doesn't have the strength to stand up to bakool ja ja until after she has that talk with you at your cabin before setting out for yak t'el. in the beginning, when we're talking to her in sharlayan, we are quite explicitly told that she's not participating in the rite because she's got what it takes to be a ruler. she is doing it solely because she knows zoraal ja needs to be stopped or there will be disastrous consequences. but at that point she's still doing it to preserve her father's tural--she has no reference point for what the kingdom is really like outside tuliyollal, even if she thinks she does because of her father's stories.

it is only by undertaking the rite and learning first hand about all the people who live in tural that her love for them truly becomes her own. before that, she was merely reflecting her father's love. this helps her to level up and mature her worldview, to help her Truly Understand what she's really fighting for and why she wants it, and it is this realization, which she discusses with you before leaving for yak t'el, which enables her to finally tap into dynamis and repeatedly limit break bakool ja ja straight to hell.

and that's not the end of her growth! when she comes with you to the dome and encounters sphene, she is faced with a person who holds all the same values she's just spent the first half of the expac developing, but who has nonetheless taken them to a horrifying and dark extreme. she is her mirror and her foil, forcing her to contend with the fact that her newfound resolve based on her reborn worldview will not be enough to make her a good ruler. it will not be enough to preserve her precious peace.

this brings us to a second important way in which she grew: in the beginning, she actually had one of the same weaknesses as zoraal ja--thinking that strength was doing everything on your own. hence why she (extremely badly) pretended she didn't struggle with seasickness, as one example. but your group taught her the value of relying on others when you need help, and that allowing yourself to be vulnerable and show others your limitations wasn't actually weakness. this was probably a motivating factor in offering joint rule with koana, but was also assuredly the key factor that differentiated her from sphene in the end--sphene refused to share the burden and plowed ahead on her own (albeit because her programming compelled her to), whereas wuk lamat had friends and allies she could turn to who could steer her right.

* bugging each other

make friends with artists. commission somebody. learn to draw yourself. ask for a beta read. try a writing partnership. fandom spaces are communities, so engage with them! it is about the journey and the fact that we all love something enough to create and build together about that thing.