a sacrifice made to the loss of a mind

and yet, that idealism is never snuffed out, even at his worst.

there's an interesting comparison drawn between alphinaud and aymeric post heavensward where alphinaud (and by extension the warrior of light who winds up agreeing with alphinaud), despite his own struggles with the crystal braves, still hasn't given up on his idealism and is determined not to kill the possessed estinien. aymeric obviously struggles with his core idealism agreeing with this sentiment vs the duty that's been drilled into him for years. especially since it hasnt been long since he was "interrogated" as a result of him showing mercy to thordan.

and how wol's success with estinien, on top of being the one to believe in aymeric's reform and to fearlessly aid him when he was at his lowest-

very notably helped him realize his ideals weren't hopeless and that there was a place for both idealism AND duty. that it's always worth trying to find another, better way, and you don't always have to forsake who you are.

i think this is important because it establishes that the composed, pragmatic aymeric people usually see isn't necessarily the most authentic version of him.

but that's a WHOLE other essay and the takeaway from this side rant is this - so much of aymeric's appearances at first glance are tailored specifically for ishgardian society. he canonically masks the more idealistic and silly parts of himself. he never snuffs them out, per say. like he does pursue these idealistic goals by working his way up in ishgardian society.

but still - at his core, i think aymeric is lonely. and i think it's because of how much of himself he does have to mask to do this.

very few people know the actual him. very few get his fully honest self. he lost his parents who raised him, he was denounced by his birth father and never knew his birth mother. and iirc only lucia knew of him actually being thordan's son, as even people he was friends with, like estinien, mention only believing it to be a rumor created to besmirch his reputation.

(lucia herself is also a really funny topic, because what do you mean the only person he was able to be fully honest with before heavensward was the garlean spy he spared and didn't even know he could fully trust initially. and even then, while she is deeply loyal to him, and their friendship is very important to his character, i wouldn't call the two of them casual buddies in the conventional sense, if that makes sense?)

and i think this tangent about lucia actually illustrates the larger idea i'm getting at. even the people closest to aymeric don't always get the whole of him.

the point i'm working up to is this - underneath his cool confidence is a lonely (and imo ironically fairly extroverted) guy who wants genuine connections with others. and the real tragedy here is that he has spent so much of his life cultivating a persona that makes genuine connection difficult!!

when he finds someone he sees as like minded and detached from the ishgardian political machine as a whole, imo, he tends to cling to them. with varying results.

which is why i think his relationship with wol is so significant. he is not only inspired to pursue his idealistic dreams of reform once more because of them--

but he finds a kindred spirit he is able to be honest and totally unfiltered with.

and ultimately, i think this is what makes him so endearing! he's NOT mr. perfect, he's NOT as smooth as he seems. hell, he stumbles when asking them out to dinner and apparently yaps his steward's ear off about how much he's looking forward to it... and then proceeds to lament about it being cut short.

and i think what makes his friendship with wol so meaningful and ultimately reciprocal is that he is one of the very few characters in this game who treats wol as a person beneath the title. he wants to get to know that person.