In regards to G'raha Tia in Dawntrail and going forward *MSQ SPOILERS*

I, as I am sure many other fans of this character, loved the little date in Living Memory with G'raha Tia. It was a much-needed reprieve, and the conversation he has with us on the gondola is quite possibly my favorite moment in the entirety of Dawntrail, and easily up there as one of my favorite moments in the entire game. It feels like a script Ishikawa herself may have written, as he suddenly expresses depth and acknowledges his deep-seated feelings on wanting to spend one more day with someone he lost. He doesn't say it outright, but I believe he is referring to the WoL, specifically from the doomed timeline. He also wonders what he would have done if he was presented with something like Living Memory to bring us back to life. It's, in my opinion, a fantastic exploration of his morals and his dedication to the WoL.

Canal town was also described to be for romance and pleasure. Given the buildup to this conversation is, quite literally, finding a wedding ring for a couple reunited in death, and him being told to live life with no regrets... G'raha's word choice is rich with subtext and the romantic tones are nearly impossible to miss in the scene (if you aren't tone deaf). Many of my friends thought he was about to confess to the WoL. I am now convinced that they put him and our WoL on a boat specifically to tease at a literal ship.

However, I also feel sympathy for players who do not care for him at all, and were likely annoyed with the section entirely on the grounds that they do not see G'raha as a romantic interest. I imagine the frustration for players who instead pair their WoL with other popular fan favorites. I understand entirely the reason why the story will never make a specific pairing canon. Deciding a single love interest will divide the fans and rocking the boat (heh) will discourage players from coming back to the story. People are already swearing off of subbing from the game because of Dawntrail not satisfying their expectations. Introducing a canon love interest would sunder the playerbase.

However, I personally love this dynamic. I'm a big sucker for romance in media, and I'm a dirty rotten shameless WoLGraha shipper. I am happy this scene exists, though I concede that the ship teasing needs to be dialed back and out of MSQ if they wish to respect the players' interests.

If I could suggest a potential avenue to have the best of both worlds, for the shippers and for people who do not care for romance, I would suggest Square Enix consider an optional quest series for the players who want to develop a romance with a specific NPC. Obviously certain restrictions should be in place, such as story progress, but like job quests, these can easily be added to per expansion. Not everyone's favorite would be an option, but so it goes for a game with thousands of NPCs.

If it affects MSQ, all it should do is change maybe one or two lines of dialogue, and leave it be.

This proposed and hypothetical quest line could explore a more romantic approach with our favorite characters, at least a date and at most establishing an official relationship. It could really delve into what makes the characters tick and how they operate in a romantic setting, and explore what they see in the WoL. G'raha enjoyers can have their taco and eat it too, and the players who don't like the tacocat can enjoy MSQ without him making romantically-charged promises to the WoL.

Hell, Square Enix could find a new purpose for Island Sanctuary and let us invite our romantic interest of choice to the island.

What do you guys think of the gondola scene? Did they go too far with the romantic subtext in Living Memory? Should this be addressed in the future? Do you have other ideas on how this can be addressed?

I'd rather they keep any "romance" involved with the WoL restricted to purely Eternal Bonding, which is something with other players, not NPCs.

I get that you're marketing this as optional content, but they don't even have the resources to do individual job quests, so they certainly wouldn't have the resources to make romance routes for the characters.

Not to mention there's probably a sizeable portion of the playerbase such as myself who isn't interested in anything romantic with NPCs, and out of the portion of the playerbase that is interested in a certain NPC in that way, they would only pick 1, maybe 2 NPCs and the rest would stay untouched.

Seems wasteful to use resources to make content that appeals to a very small portion of the playerbase, has no replayability, and just frankly doesn't fit into the game.

I want them to leave romance to the headcanon of the player and not go further on it. But I would have no problem with optional stuff in that form if only to get it out of my MSQ.
For example, I really like Kipih Jakkya but I wouldn't want her to be forced on other players in a romantic way. I agree with you in that case entirely.
But before we do that I would like it more if they cared for the MSQ again and only go into this stuff after they found a way how to write a story again.

That said I liked the gondola scene itself because it showed the wise side of G'raha I liked of him as the exarch. I dind't see it as romantic but as a bonding and silent time between friends.
I also have to say as a former big G'raha Tia hater that he really got into his role starting from 6.5 onwards and mellowed down. I don't mind him anymore and given the MSQ in DT I was really happy to spent time with him if only to get Wuk away from me.
I want to see more of this side from him and less of the fanboy he was after Shadowbringers.

Why is it, in this day and age, that 2 characters having a heart to heart conversation automatically means there is a love/romance connection?

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Originally Posted by Mikey_R

Why is it, in this day and age, that 2 characters having a heart to heart conversation automatically means there is a love/romance connection?

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Due to the circumstances (gondola, wedding ring, heart to heart, graha being your biggest fanboy and that is an understatement), it frankly feels like this scene was aimed at and chiseled for G'raha shippers.

I don't think it was an "CCA Amuro and Char play-fighting on the grass" tension either, but it was clearly up in there, imo.

I think any other character in that position would've garnered the same feeling from me, and quite frankly, I felt it was getting a bit uncomfortable at times. The conversation was interesting, though.

I don't think they want to have any kind of actual romantic relationship between any major NPC and the WoL, most likely because the WoL can be either gender and if they're smart they won't force it onto people who might not want it...

But at any rate, Raha mostly just considers the WoL a really important friend and basically idolizes them. After all, he does have the memories of the Crystal Exarch version of him who spent a 100 years trying to being the WoL to The First as the final hope to prevent a Calamity, and succeeded at that.

I feel like the intention of these scenes is to let the players themselves determine the subtext. Thus, people who want a scene to be romantic or believe there’s a romantic interest there will view it as such.
Whereas those who see the character platonically / expect the same from them simply see it as a conversation between friends.
Basically they try to have their cake and eat it lol

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Originally Posted by CosmosNovaRose

It feels like a script Ishikawa herself may have written, as he suddenly expresses depth and acknowledges his deep-seated feelings on wanting to spend one more day with someone he lost. He doesn't say it outright, but I believe he is referring to the WoL, specifically from the doomed timeline. He also wonders what he would have done if he was presented with something like Living Memory to bring us back to life. It's, in my opinion, a fantastic exploration of his morals and his dedication to the WoL.

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I'm glad I wasn't the only one who read that scene that way. Like you, I'm a shameless WoL+Raha shipper as well, but I 100% get that plenty of people feel completely the opposite. What I loved about that scene (just setting aside my Raha thoughts!) was that it was one of the few times in DT when we had a genuinely warm moment with one of our new or old friends. Way, way too much of it was just blandly smiling and nodding in the background of the Wuk Lamat show. The final map had a lot of emotional moments (though I'm personally frustrated that it felt like Krile's whole backstory reveal was just rushed and crammed into one section of said map... but getting off-topic!) but outside of that map, there were only a few that engaged us, the WoL, directly: Koana coming by our room to express gratitude, our spar session/conversation with the Dawnservant, and a few of the beats during the Xak Tural section with Erenville (probably a couple others I'm forgetting). Otherwise, I just felt like I was watching a movie version of XIV with very little personal investment in what was going on.

My point is, regardless of anyone's feelings about G'raha or any of the game's characters from a romantic perspective, I just adored that gondola scene because it felt so personal between two characters that have been through a ton together. DT was sorely lacking in that for me.

dear gods, please no... just... no.

have wanted to drop mr puppy dog eyes into a hole since the moment we met.

I dont want a romance, I dont want a side quest with romance I do not have a need for that in a video game. so.. not just no but hell no.