Unapologetic Yapping on Dawntail's Story

[@GoldenThreadSeer]

i have never once played FFXIV. but i love the series, and your content to the point that i could listen to you talk about anything you’re passionate about. it’s so so julia.

[@rynproto]

Feeding us FFXIV enjoyers with in-depth story discourse. Thank you for your service o7

[@RikuUnadaru]

So Happy to hear someone talk about the story in this way! I've realized that where some folks may dislike DT, I really liked it. I think the expansion is misunderstood in the way it takes time in worldbuilding and Wuk Lamat. It all felt super neccesary and interesting to establish these cultures and why they are important to her and us. Some folks just arent gonna vibe with that, but I did, it feels so crucial in ANY story about culture and diversity. I've heard some folks call Wuk Lamat a worse Lyse which is like, a horrible misrepresentaton of her character imo, I remember really disliking Lyse in Stormblood, cause she always felt like an outsider in her own culture coming to "save the day." I too struggle with the idea of leaders (with the ones we have in real life), and this idea of being born into power, I am way more of a "power of the people" girl. So it was soooo important to see Wuk Lamat show her love for her people, land and how she was so geniune in that way. It's the kind of leadership we thrive with. Compassioonate, and centered on community. She counterbalances her naievete with compassion and care, and a holistic view of her people - where as Koana is her counterpart in that regard, bring reason and execution to those passions. And I also agree, Zoraal Ja really pissed me awf! I feel like he was such a good villian in the sense, that it so clear, he is so forgone, and we try to talk to him but it's not enough. My poor boy Gulool Ja, your daddy aint shit! I loveddd the themes explored this expac, and really want more time with so many of the characters- Erenville, Krile, Koana etc etc. But I love listening to you yap about the expac and taking your time exploring the ideas it presented. I kept calling this expansion the Parents Expansion for it super strong commentary on family, I could relate to so many mother/father dynamics in the expac. All the stuff with Solution Nine really was so exsistential and interesting, and usually themes that can be very scary to think about but I like that we explored it. The idea of souls vs memories is so deeply profound, if not deeply unsettling, in many ways that storyline reminds of the game SOMA but a lot more optimistic and I really appreciated that. It brings up questions like, are our memories the totality of us? Are people gone once the body, memory and soul are seperated/deteriorated? Is a digital existence satisfying? There is a desperate need in Solution Nine, to maintain stasis, but at the cost of everything else, which embodied in Sphene's motivations in the end. But even Sphene is a memory of the queen idealized, and not even her true self in some regards. Thank girlypop for sitting down and making this video, WE love a good yap sesh!

[@michao.5702]

Your content is such a breath of fresh air, excited to see another xiv vid beside the pokemon content!

[@_phaun]

Thank you for checking out the vid and supporting the content! I always have a small group of ffxiv players on all my platforms, so I try to give ya'll a little something when I can. :)

[@ang3lk1m]

Idk absolutely anything about this game but it's a phaun yap video so i HAVE to tune in

[@Roxora412]

I think the part that really resonated with me about Sphene's character and the many things she can represent is how that unwillingness to let go of people youve loved in your life, and continuing to be hung up on those that have come and gone can prevent you from making space for new people to love. Her and Wuk Lamat botu recognize that if things were different, that they would be great friends and leaders together, but Sphene's undying devotion to the past makes that impossible. There is no room for anything else to Sphene.

[@GothaBillsAndDeath]

Hearing your thoughts on Solution 9 was very interesting from a non-sci-fi enthusiast's perspective. When I hit Solution 9, my brain drew maps back to old sci-fi or cyberpunk media. In regards to the "body without organs" question presented in this segment, it drew the most comparisons to a horror indie game I remembered called SOMA. Basic gist is that technology had gotten so advanced that you could make a perfect, unedited scan of someone and download them into a machine. Basically two versions of you could exist and think that they were the authentic self. It was essentially a coinflip: the MC was under the belief that his mind would be "transferred" to another body, when in fact, the scanners in this world can only copy/paste. Usually you "delete" the original scan so as to not create existential conflicts. Solution 9 had very similar themes especially when you read into side-stories discussing how the algorithm was basing these digitized humans off of the memories of widowers or surviving family. And so you could, theoretically, get a situation where the person is scanned to look much younger than the person who remembered them because that was the age where they had died. I personally struggled to truly define them as "real" in the sense that these entities seemed more like advanced recorded memories in an artificial aftherlife, which in itself is a common trope utilized by other games from Fallout 3 to Cyberpunk 2077. Erenville's mother seemed to indicate as much. That and it was built off a looooot of corpses from Sphene's account so it did color every interaction with a hint of trepidation. It was like a Garlemald expect replace ethnic nationalist, fascism with a matriarchal goddess making binary decisions for the protection of her people by stealing other civilization's resources in the form of aether.

[@_phaun]

I love your responses so much referencing other games Ive heard of but havent gotten to play. These are all games on my backlog and now Im super motivated to check them out! Thank you!

[@GothaBillsAndDeath]

@@_phaun I love this video for helping me reflect on other people's opinions and I do believe your insight into Zoraal Ja Ja wasn't one that I considered until watching. Consider me a subscriber!

[@GarnetDust24]

I’ve been waiting for your ffxiv review for so long ahhhh. Your discussion of isolation and ancestral healing really hit close to home

[@tymbis]

Thank you for this well thought out analysis, very refreshing to see someone who actually consumed the story on more than a surface level, very slay 👏 ❤

[@soldierorsomething]

Your point at the end about people wanting to preserve everything and not wanting to let anything go is a crucial point in the story and maybe about us players, since im still keeping over 75 000 screenshots of my FF14 journey on my hard drive :D

[@tanidulaney5122]

Loved this video so much. I started following you for your girlypop content, but I just finished dawntrail myself and was so excited to see this video! If you enjoy making ffxiv content I would LOVE to see you review the new gearsets from 7.0!!

[@xKayges]

I appreciate your insight and point of view on the DT story - it's definitely helped smooth out some of the wrinkles in how I feel about it. Sharing ideas to come to a better understanding is another theme of the story, after all! Also, I was trying to catch up leveling my Miner as I listened, so thanks!

[@twiceRedacted]

I really enjoyed this expansion! One thing I did find interesting tho is the amount of hypocrisy that takes place in the final act of the game. The game goes to great lengths to almost strong arm the player into thinking that recycling souls and the Endless are the morally reprehensible things. Yet, all the characters that went into Living Memory reaped the benefits of the system the Alexandrian’s had in place. Wuk Lamat and Erenville got to reconnect and say their final goodbyes to their mothers, allowing them to gain a closure they wouldn’t have otherwise. Krile got to meet her birth parents and learn about her culture; something that would not have been possible without Living Memory. I’m not sure what the thoughts/intentions were, but it’s something I’m hoping is explored in post Dawntrail patches!

[@MeedaYean]

I don't think this point is really hypocritical, since this isn't what the Endless are for. The living Alexandrians don't interact with the Endless at all, in fact most of them aren't even aware they exist. They aren't a way to get closure or a repository of knowledge, they're just a collection of memories that exists for posterity, sitting on a mostly forgotten file server powered by the souls of the living. In the context of the MSQ, we came to Living Memory to turn off the soul-powered server, but since we had at least some shred of empathy, it was understandably difficult for the party to think of the Endless as simple constructs of memory data and aether. They're essentially Primals in all but name, but they look and act like people, and some of them have the faces and behavior of people our party knew and loved. If we'd just ran by them all and pulled the plug, people would be complaining about how cruel and heartless we were to Erenville and Krile. It was worth getting to know and understand them, not just for Erenville and Krile and Wuk Lamat's edification, but to really come to understand the nature of their existence, and thus just how hollow the "paradise" of Living Memory really is. We weren't reaping the benefits of the system, we were trying to fully understand what it was we were destroying while grappling with our own regrets. We were honoring the Endless by committing their stories and their dreams and their legacies to our memory, like we did with the Ancients. The real hypocrite is Sphene, who claims to care so much about preserving her people's memories, but then doesn't even let the living remember the dead so as to spare them the pain of loss. The Alexandrians are literally incapable of honoring the legacy of their forebears, because those legacies have been locked up tight by Sphene, to the benefit of no one but the logic of a broken AI.

[@angelnoa6327]

I'm glad you really enjoyed DT's story. I do think some of its themes and character dynamics were the best parts. But I do think the pacing was too slow. New ideas were introduced at a very slow rate, and Wuk Lamat's character was no complex enough to really fill her over the top screen time. There are aspects I enjoyed a lot, especially exploring the themes of learning to let go and loss and death from the last 2 zones. Though something that does put a damper on it is that the last zone, which is one of the best parts of DT, is like a worse version of Amaurot from ShB. So idk, I hope they do better in the future. But I love that the story resonated for you. There are definitely some good parts to it!

[@Neloch4]

this was so sweet thank you for sharing your analysis of the story, it connected with me in a similar way

[@wolffaccet1613]

hearing you say you enjoyed Dawntrail made me so happy to hear. I've been feeling quite isolated in how much i loved it. thank you for making this video! ♥

[@geekiemire6040]

as also a fan of xiv i think this was a wonderful video & i agree a lot with your takes, i think of all the expansions this is the one that had me just sit with my thoughts and emotions a lot and honestly cry the most i think. also may i say its always a pleasure seeing another face 4 aura player! 💜

[@lindentreee]

I just finished MSQ earlier today, this was posted especially for me thank u phaun

[@lunekeeper]

still watching but i'm also going through my saturn return and your comment about enjoying things in the way we used to and that hit deep. i want to try and do the same. this expansion was a huge surprise for me, i'm so glad others feel the same.

[@otto_poom]

Thank you for making this! A lot of the capital-D "Discourse" around the story has just felt like thinly-veiled misogyny. Shout chat in S9 is... the worst. I enjoyed the story, and while I had issues with the pacing, I felt like it was pretty successful. Hearing you talk through it helped me pinpoint why I felt that way about a lot of it!

[@kit_mason]

Something I love about Zoraal Ja and Sphene is that, when you get down to it, they're *very* similar. They ultimately want to achieve true, everlasting peace for their peoples by any means necessary, be it through Zoraal Ja's war to end all wars or Sphene's neverending consumption of every drop of aether she can get her hands on. They're obsessed with this beyond the beliefs of their people - there's a conversation the Pelupelu have about how the youth have forgotten the horrors of war, but Zoraal Ja was too busy proving he didn't need anyone's help to hear and learn from that conversation. There's a conversation you have a few times in the Unlost World with the Endless where they say outright they don't want their lives to be never-ending because of the deaths of who knows how many others, and many say they're content with what their false afterlife gave them a chance to do - reconcile, especially. They're two sides of the same coin, as much as they want to distance themselves from one another. Sphene wraps her beliefs in love, Zoraal Ja wraps his in hate.

[@CharlieMayo-ll3kr]

ngl, i came for the pokémon content but i am STAYINNG for the FF! the way you say zaroooool JA-JA! yea that’s a dopamine shiver girl!

[@aaronsound]

Thanks a lot for the video, it really made me think about Dt more and the themes you talked about really hit me.

[@squirepengu]

Great analysis!! I loved this expansion as well. It just felt very... personal? Not that the others didn't, but it hits a lot of really deeply personal things such as family, grief, the obsession with permanence (which can be rooted in personal desires) and I was really feeling all kinds of emotions about it (in a good way of course) Also good luck with the extremes!

[@coben1290]

would love to see a ffxiv character ranking, after this expansion my opinions on certain characters has definitely changed

[@arias8583]

I could listen to you yap for hours especially if it’s about FFXIV! One thing that also gave me a realization in hindsight with Dawntrail is how much destruction Emet and the Ascians really brought into these worlds. Especially after just having come from the previous expansions where we were accompanied by Emet/Hythlodaeus and really immersing myself with the Ascians’ story. While we were slightly shown and told about the calamities and the rejoining of shards, experiencing the aftermaths in these worlds really is a different point of view. I have to give kudos to the writers that are able to incorporate such themes like familial bonding and leadership and have them contrast or relate with each new characters. Now that we have basically a portal key, I can’t wait to see what the future expansions entail. I would’ve also loved to hear your thoughts on the previous expansions when they released. Thank you for this video!

[@antarath517]

The pieces and the themes felt very good, but they sometimes felt like they were afforded an improper amount of time. I think the best way to balance out our attention would have been to bring us in as a neutral party that each claimant is vying for the support of. We would get Zoraal Ja to open up to us as a somewhat kindred spirit (but in a "what if we went down a dark path" way) and some more development on Koana. I'm not sure how I'd rework the second half, I think it mostly needs some touch-ups more than a major plot overhaul.

[@yohanhusei14]

I never thought I would find a genuine in-depth analysis of Dawntrail, so thank you. I've unfollowed/unsubscribed so many streamers because of DT, they all started like "Wuk is awesome, what are you (chat) talking about?", "You know chat why Wuk is like (this) and (that)? It's because...". Then they kept reading the chat who obviously never understood the story and just came to the stream with the goal to make the streamer mad at Wuk as well. Well, they succeeded and I have to leave that place forever. I guess it's trendy to hate DT so those streamers just jumped right in, after all engagements = moneh for them. Wuk is far from perfect but she is not as bad as others described her to be. I have never thought of the theories and implications you mentioned here. The solution 9 one is pretty genius. We are indeed living a world resembling that place. It is creepy to think that we may actually achieve that state in the future when technology gets even crazier. I don't like that though. But if I will like something from that world, it is the Living Memory but only the concept of the place as a Living "Memorial". A place where you can bid your final goodbyes when they pass unexpectedly that you wasn't able to say your peace. A closure for the living. I would love that. While doing the MSQ, I kept looking at both Wuk and Sphene's eyes. They have the same color. And when they have this conversation about the possibility of ruling together but perhaps on a different time? I just can't help but think that they could be Shards. We've seen through out the story that some shards share the same job even beyond the rift, Grenolt, Rowena, Wandring Minstrel to name a few. And with Wuk being the Vow of Resolve and Sphene the Queen of Reason, I can't shake the feeling that it may be true and it is fun to think about. What do you think? ☺

[@wishydude]

I don’t play Final Fantasy 14 but I am going to watch this video all the way through to support my fav

[@DJFrenchFry]

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!

[@itmealice]

Great video! I wish I had been able to enjoy the Dawntrail MSQ as much as you but for me, the writing felt much weaker than previous expansions, and on top of that I just don't really enjoy Wuk Lamat as a major character. So much of the story felt like filler that could have been more interesting if the moment to moment writing was stronger and I came out of the experience wishing that we had been given much more time with Krile and Erenville to focus on their issues rather than what the 90-96 quests ended up being. I also wish we had gotten more time with Koana, since I think his relationship with Urianger and Thancred is basically what we COULD have been with Wuk Lamat but didn't end up getting to be. As for Bakool Ja Ja, the twist with his backstory didn't land for me since there wasn't much buildup to it, if they had thrown in more hints to things being off with the Mamool Ja I think it would have worked a lot better. Living Memory was AWESOME, for the first time ever I did not mount up at all while going through MSQ in that zone and talked to every single NPC (the kids that you can do a little race with were such a cool touch that most people probably missed!) but I wish a lot of the stuff leading up to it had been different. Krile and Erenville needed more time to cook and while I cried a lot and really connected with their emotional beats I don't think they were executed nearly as well as they could have been. I love the zone as a kind of inversion of Ultima Thule and an parallel to Amaurot, and for me personally the idea of shutting down the Endless DID feel like a heavy thing to do (recently got into the Sword Art Online novels and I feel like that through-line made a big difference), I just wish the way we got there felt like it was adding to the experience rather than detracting from it. As much as I take issue with the MSQ though, the dungeons and raids are SUPER fun, and I'm a huge fan of how busy but simple Viper is! I also have high hopes for where we could be going with 7.x with things involving the key, seemingly connected to Azem. My pet theory is that we're heading towards connecting all the shards with limited dimensional fusion like what happened with Everkeep and the dome in order to "complete" the world without rejoinings and further calamities. tl;dr Wuk Lamat is, to me, Lyse done wrong and a lot of the MSQ didn't hit but there were some great emotional moments towards the end that I absolutely loved :)

[@aeas09]

I have never played Final Fantasy 14 but I do love FF16 so much.

[@finalfantasy11lover]

As a final fantasy 14 girly you ate with this one ❤

[@HighShepherdLopes]

On that leadership part. The dissonance between Wuk Lamat and our real world examples is crazy because our leaders are more likely to look like the Garleans in their imperial mindset rather than the honor and true nobility it takes to lead a nation in the way that the Dawnservant does. Even their title say it all "servant". To serve. But in real life it seems like our leaders are more like Tyrants who get to do whatever they want

[@_phaun]

Yes! I went on a whole yap about something similar but decided to cut it out. The dissonance, i feel, hurt her character too because its hard to relate to finding someone like her endearing. I tend to suspend disbelief for a lot of narratives just because I want to see where it’s trying to take me.

[@Teramoix]

Dawntrail failed to land on almost every level for me, but I'm glad that some of its themes managed to resonate with others. For all I dislike many of their creative choices I wouldn't take that away from the people who did like it

[@ASTRAnight]

I really like your take on the story! And it's really sad hearing about your thoughts on leadership! The people in leadership in our modern day are so bad, it's so refreshing to see it being handled in a different way in game!

[@NinaNoHime]

Maybe weird but even though I didn't enjoy DT, I like listening to you speak about it. I haven't heard many review talking about the familly theme of the expansion. I noticed it once I reached the 4th zone and Erevenille reveals his mentor is his mother Yet, I don't think it was adressed in a way that resonated with me. It wasn't as egregious as with FFXVI (my gawd the treatment if women in this game...), but I felt Gullul Jaja was way under utilise. We never trully saw him interacr with his children. And so, Zoraal Ja's psyche and revolt came from nowhere to me. We have Krile noticing his menacing aura once before he snaps iirc. Maybe the issue lies in th story telling? Wish I had found as much as you did in DT. Thank you anyway for sharing your thoughts! :)

[@NessyWZ]

I was so excited about this video, I needed an opinion on this expac!! I felt like Dawntrail's story was good, but the characters were not as enjoyable as past expantions. I have a strong dislike towards Wuk Lamat, I don't really enjoy the starry eyed main character learning and becoming worthy of ascension trope, I have seen it too many times. It felt like they pushed her on the screen at every possible opportunity, and didn't really portray her using the flourishes they usually have for the main cast. It felt forced, especially because they took agency away from every other character in the game (I say, looking at the last trial - "sPhEnE, LiStEN tO mE" was such an unnecessary moment). It might be a me problem since I don't identify at all with my wol, and even if I don't want to him to be the absolute protagonist, I felt like he was such a useless side character. They also made scions really unimportant and I would have LOVED to see more for Krile, she was finally having a main role and she was robbed so hard. I would have been fine if they swapped her role with Wuk's for the 2nd act of the expansion. The 2nd act was more enjoyable to me cos I really resonate with Sphene, I love characters who cannot accept loss and are desperate. She felt like such a good villain, her complexity is what I really enjoy about FFXIV. Also, how girlypop is the 2nd Arcadion floor, I am obsessed about her and can't wait to prog the savage :3

[@NessyWZ]

Also lmao sorry I wrote a lot

[@GothaBillsAndDeath]

Relating back to your comment on 5:20: drawing from past experiences made me a lot more antagonistic on DT. This is sort of a case of experiencing better stories that did the family dynamic better, but I couldn't stand DT because I've seen this story done better in Dragon Age 2. That is to say a story about families isn't unique to me. In DD2, your party was your family, and they all experienced hardships and joy with your main character as the canonical sibling. The stakes high from this POV as your family was being torn apart in front of your eyes due to the main conflict, and every party member had different opinions on a given situation. Perhaps, that sort of format or execution would've worked better for DT but the MMO-style of making the WoL the POV and MC makes it really hard to convey these stories with much weight. I never truly empathized with Zarool Ja due to his draconian tendencies. It never felt like I had any agency with exploring this face he uses for people and the face he keeps hidden. If this were a traditional JRPG or CRPG, where you play as Wuk Lumat, THEN I can imagine these themes being exhibited a lot better.

[@_phaun]

Ykw this is a good point. I did often feel like I was playing background to the story and the fights with wuk lamat felt more like a main character moment. For me personally, I didn’t mind it and enjoyed the roleplay of feeling like the older sibling in a way and just watching her grow. However, this being an MMO that has mostly put you in an active role for 10 years does create a strange dissonance in this particular story. I did play DA2 a LONG time ago, and cant remember it, but now I want to check it out again.

[@GothaBillsAndDeath]

@@_phaun It was a fantastic video and I really loved your insights especially from a completely different walk of life to mind. It helped me reconsider certain plotpoints I hadn't before.

[@gogogagagugu2134]

finally someone who actually engages with the story on a deeper level than "I hate Wuk Lamat she annoying!!"

[@goldenalpaca3881]

I love your Au Ra by the by

[@2oaster]

YASS ANTHROPOLOGY

[@MosesSuppose]

I haven’t played since stormblood release, I want to play Dawntrail bc of picto and viper but there’s like 2.5 expansion cycles worth of quests and content I’d have to go through first looking at me like 😬

[@_phaun]

It's a LOT for sure. I don't envy anybody trying to get through it because some of it can be a slog. Still thank you for stopping by and giving this video some love.

[@riry0ku]

You don't need to reach Dawntrail to play picto or viper. As long as you own the expansion you can unlock both of those jobs in the starter cities. Viper is in Uldah. Picto is in Gridania. Hope this helps.