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I stand by my prior conviction that Papalymo had to die early enough that we didn't have such an excellent foil for Emet-Selch's prickly flamboyance

The Warrior of Light is but a few hundred yalms away!

This (and its perfect inverse, the horrific solo instance in the Garlemald map of Endwalker) is one of the most affecting solo instances for me personally, because it does such a good job of instilling that feeling of needing to hold out to the very edge of hope.

The Warrior of Light is but a few hundred yalms away as you're fighting for your life, for your friends' lives, as you've been feeling the seconds tick by, waiting for reinforcements you are only certain are coming because of hope, is like... like looking to east at dawn on the fifth day in Lord of the Rings. It is the hope that you come to when you've run out of other hopes--that if you can only hold out long enough, you will not have to fight alone.

It just gets me so good every time.

What are some of your favorite solo instances?

A thing I want to add is that of course a lot of its strength comes from the fact that you (the player) are put in the mind and perspective of a person who is counting on you (the WoL) and the whole experience is about feeling the faith that your friends have placed in you and internalizing it. What a lovely, lovely treat.

The Warrior of Light is but a few hundred yalms away!

This (and its perfect inverse, the horrific solo instance in the Garlemald map of Endwalker) is one of the most affecting solo instances for me personally, because it does such a good job of instilling that feeling of needing to hold out to the very edge of hope.

The Warrior of Light is but a few hundred yalms away as you're fighting for your life, for your friends' lives, as you've been feeling the seconds tick by, waiting for reinforcements you are only certain are coming because of hope, is like... like looking to east at dawn on the fifth day in Lord of the Rings. It is the hope that you come to when you've run out of other hopes--that if you can only hold out long enough, you will not have to fight alone.

It just gets me so good every time.

What are some of your favorite solo instances?

Éliane being Garlean felt like a pretty fluff decision at the time, but among other things, it's been tremendously fun to think about all the ways the canon experience gets slightly distorted, like...

• Every single infiltration mission in 2.0- til partway through Stormblood is SO easy. She just waits til she's out of eyesight of any allies and takes her damn mask off because she has a fucking Garlean third eye and literally nobody can imagine someone being dipshitted enough to do that. Thancred can't stand how efficient she is, because it's NOT like she's stealthcrafty otherwise. He's the least surprised when she 'fesses up to everyone.
• That one terrible Garlean scientist giving her this asinine lecture about how Garleans are superior in every way but cannot manipulate aether, and she just smirks then slams him with Stone
• Horrific terrible guilt at the idea that seeing her be able to wield magic is what gave Zenos the idea to experiment with Krile et al (that isn't true, of course, but that doesn't matter to horrible thoughts)
• A lot of NPCs actually being significantly less suspicious of Asahi because they've already had to start thinking of Garleans as people rather than a monolithic evil

Also, I'm used to the WoL feeling weirded out by Zenos assuming there's some magic parallel between them, but the extent to which her being Garlean amps up the ironic tension with Asahi is HILARIOUS to me. She's a citizen-born Garlean who turned traitor and fucked off, while Asahi has been grasping at imperial status, clawing for power. And Zenos is OBSESSED with her, and Asahi extra extra can't stand it.

always delightful, but especially tasty in this run, that we get a SIGNIFICANT heads up on the ascians' plans and the empire's shenanigans in general because Asahi just COULD NOT help from wanting, in his last moments, for someone to witness the trust that "Zenos" placed in him. For someone to see that Zenos had marked him as special.