Spoilers for Endwalker
Living in Aigead Siorc's head doesn't necessarily mean you're privy to all the answers by default.
Behind the scenes under the cut
It's said that we're our own worst critics, though generally when it comes to my writing I feel like I'm a bit soft on myself. I kind of get high off my own hype, only really asking questions of my own decisions once the thrill of the narrative dies down.
A big part of Aigead's story in the postgame of Stormblood is the way she approaches the amnesiac Yotsuyu, finding herself, in fact, empathizing with the woman. Now, Yotsuyu is treated terribly by the narrative. Like she's established as a victim of trafficking and one of the people responsible for it is given more sympathy by the story than she is. Even I, who is normally the Regulation Story Enjoyer, have to admit that this is the single aspect in FFXIV's narrative that I don't think I can extrapolate any kind of acceptance for.
That being said WOW ya girl did some fuckin War Crimes, huh???
As much as I like to draw the parallels between what Aigead has been through and the potential of Yotsuyu's redemption, even I need to sometimes take a step back and think, are these two really "alike?" Are we two truly not so different, she and I?
I've used the narrative device of framing a moment of introspection as a conversation between Aigead and Fray before in Supporting Me for much a similar reason: I wanted to talk myself through a reason for Fray being somewhat inconsistent in the times I've written them. Fray is honestly great for this sort of thing and I'm grateful to the game for putting this particular doll in the toybox for me to play with. I mentioned during FFXIVWrite 2023 that I'd wanted to write more Aigead/Fray material because quite honestly their interactions are some of my absolute favorites to write.
Now you may think, Gage, is it perhaps bad form to write an entire story to justify your use of a shaky narrative parallel instead of maybe just going back and writing out the parallel? Aigead does not need to empathize with Yotsuyu to believe she deserves better. To which I say no absolutely not rules for art are fake do what you want baybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
