another thing that pisses me off in regards to the fandom's treatment of lyse by calling her a white saviour or saying that within the story she is unnecessary and useless because she didnt live as an ala mhigan, so therefore the role of leader should go to m'naago instead, is the fact that. well. the point is that she is disconnected from ala mhigo because she left. she has monologues about how she feels unfit to lead. there's so many quests where you get to see her being rejected by her own people or be violent towards her because she wasn't there to suffer like they did. this is something they constantly rub in her face! this is the entire point of her character! the disconnect!
ala mhigo was torn by garlean invasion, their entire people scattered and forced to leave to the rest of eorzea. there are so many displaced ala mhigans that LITTLE ALA MHIGO EXISTS, FULL OF ALA MHIGANS WHO COULD NOT LIVE WITHIN GRIDANIA OR UL'DAH
Rejected by the elementals of the Twelveswood and unable to adapt to Ul'dahn custom, Ala Mhigan refugees eventually settled in southern Thanalan. In exchange for supplies, the residents allow the Immortal Flames to maintain a presence, and Little Ala Mhigo now serves as a post whence to watch the movements of the Amalj'aa
you literally interact with meffrid in A REALM REBORN
IN FUCKING GRIDANIA
WHERE THE PALACE OF THE DEAD THING IS. IN THAT SMALL CAMP. BECAUSE HE TOO WAS FORCED TO FLEE
how can you look at lyse in the eye and see stormblood in a vacuum and not understand that the entire point of lyse becoming the face of the resistance is the fact that ala mhigo does not abandon her children, regardless of where they are and who they are? that she rejects this position of power over and over because she understands she's unfit to lead as someone who didn't fight for her own homeland?
THE LITERAL GYR ABANIAN ANTHEM THEY SING AT THE END OF THE MSQ EXPLAINS IT. COME YE WAYWARD BROTHERS, BEREFT OF HEARTH AND HOME
this is why lyse is tied with hien, because he was born DURING garlean occupation. he has never seen a free doma, this is something they insist upon on his side of the story. they are linked because hien has never seen the country his father died for and yet he is here to continue the fight and ensure doma is liberated. its the exact same for lyse. hien's life hinged on the desire for freedom, if his own people didn't want to be free then he was going to kill himself because there is no point in him fighting for and existing as a symbol of freedom. both of them had their people acknowledge they're needed!
wayward brothers! in the lyrics of gyr abania's anthem!
wayward daughter! as the theme for tsukuyomi!
this is why yotsuyu is also important! why fordola is important! they are still, at the end of the day, daughters of their own countries who matter as much as anyone else who embodies the perfect upstanding citizen! it matters that yotsuyu is treated as doman (even after the questionable decision of giving her amnesia which just. feels like an easy "feel bad for her bc we couldn't figure out how to make a victim turned perpetrator seem empathetic"), because her pain and suffering came as a result of doman patriarchy. it matters that fordola grew up as a "priviledged" ala mhigan child within garlean camps! because neither group accepted her or her family in the end, because she was always going to be seen a traitor and a savage regardless of what she does and what she accomplishes!
again, the writing and the pacing and the way so many things are handled in stormblood is objectively baffling and shitty sometimes! but there is still the foundation of a story grounded in people of color! and pretending like stormblood doesn't exist or its the devil from the bible and it killed your dog because lyse is white skinned is just adding to the issue!
