Onward, Eorzean Soldiers.

AT LAST. PART ONE IS DONE.

I have collected the pre-revamp data, compiled just a few into these percentages you see here, but the majority of what I looked at can’t be easily graphed and will be under the cut

I will be playing through ARR again post 5.3 and will make a new post once that’s done comparing the before and after (note: data does not include Coil or extreme trials, but does include all sidequests)

Now, without further ado: read on to see the final numbers for all the horseshit ARR put us through

By now, the sibs feel they’ve wrung all the information out of Emet-Selch they’re ever going to get, so they’d rather he just shut up and leave them be.  Demi particularly didn’t enjoy the speech about conquering and crushing rebellion under heel

The entire conversation wasn’t a terribly pleasant one.  Emet-Selch spoke of them labouring under misapprehensions, and yet he laboured under a misapprehension of his own: that either of them give a damn about the world beyond their immediate circle.  Whether the world before time was better or worse is irrelevant; the only world they care to protect is the one that houses their family and friends

Ardbert on the other hand, they could happily talk to for a lot longer--given some privacy so they don’t appear to be completely mad

Tal laughed maybe a little too hard at Alisaie’s puns, but it was real laughter

Amity is nice, they like Amity, and Demi was glad to see Tristol safe and well after pulling him from the sea

Tallyn stayed behind in Amity while Demi went to scout with Alisaie; she was asked if she could jump to the base of Mt Gulg, partially as a joke about what she did in Eulmore, but the answer is no.  It’s much too high

Part of her was dismayed at a waste of such perfectly good magitek bits--and wary, now, of the Exarch, though she wants to believe he’s going to help her before the Light takes over

As it turned out Tallyn already had a talk with him in Amity, and while he still wasn’t happy with how things were going, he was markedly less anxious when they came together again at Top Rung

They were completely floored when everyone started volunteering to help.  No one’s ever done that before, most people are content to leave the impossible to the Warriors of Light and nevermind the details, but--people are helping

Demi tried to call on Feo Ul again and was yet again interrupted before she could get the name out

Chai-Nuzz: Who are you people? Demi, grinning: The Warriors of soddin’ Darkness, an’ don’t you forget it.

Seeing former free citizens of Eulmore sincerely try to make amends for how they treated those beneath them was touching, but bittersweet for Demi.  Why these people?  Why now?  Why never for her?  There is no meol blinding the nobility where she hails from, all the suffering they wreak is entirely of their own volition.  She just...wants to believe it when the Scions tell her people are inherently good, but it’s hard

Demi: Lali-hoooo! Tal: L-Lali-ho?

The entire run to the Duergar’s Tewel was supremely weird.  Why was the Exarch saying those things?  Why did it sound like he knew her before all this?  Why did his voice almost sound familiar?  Why was he insisting that her tale mattered?

Seeing the entire world band together was enough to make her tear up, and made Tal smile

He helped Demi imbue Toddia’s heartstone, using his aether to give hers a little push, and they went off in search of the Exarch

Demi knows for certain that she knew the Exarch before all of this, before Norvrandt, but for the life of her she can’t place where or how, until he mentioned slumber.  She knew then he was G’raha Tia, but she chose not to speak up

If you’re considering making an alt to rush through ARR again before the streamline/revamp, so you can see the difference before and after for yourself

FEAR NOT

I have undertaken this task for you, making a grand sacrifice of having to listen to ARR voice acting and watch every pointless cutscene without skipping, to put together this comprehensive tally of all the absolute garbage nonsense inherent in the 2.x patches that we tell everyone to skip now

Note: tally not currently finished, alt in question is about to do Castrum Centri and I had to pause to grind out my grand company ranks because that’s still a thing and it sucks

I didn’t say Thancred was right, I didn’t even say he should be forgiven without doing something to earn that forgiveness.  The question was “how is he supposed to cope with this situation” and the premise was that Thancred 1) had no one he felt he could talk to and 2) has a lot of baggage and trauma around this situation, and it’s hard to find the Right Way to cope when your own issues are heavily affecting your judgement and you have no support (self-inflicted isolation or otherwise).  There’s a Right Way, a Better Way, a Bad Way and a Worse Way when it comes to coping and Thancred landed on Bad; he’s absolutely at fault and was 100% a dick, but yknow, ripped yellow star sticker for “not as bad as could’ve been”

That post was @ people who specifically call him an abuser or say that he should die or that Ryne should ditch him and hate him, which is blowing the whole thing way out of proportion and is honestly a draconian and unnecessary way to react to a flawed person fucking up while trying to do the right thing