Haurchefant Memorial at a recent 30th anniversary event

[Vahlnir]

I used to love Haurchefant and loved that we got a minion of him that I hugged all he time... but his death felt rubbed in our faces over and over and OVER again. Short stories, that HW journey, the Fortems shield,the undelivered letter, ok we get it, we must feel sad about him forever. I hate to say it but I reached a point where I don't want to hear about him anymore. All this is great but, its enough. I feel like it's being milked now.I suppose I still love the character but I'm really fed up with his death.

I liked him as a character, but...he had a personality, so he obviously had to go. Can't have that, nope. Tbh, he wasn't really around long enough for me to care as much as SE apparently wanted me to. It was just a shame to see another character with personality and potential killed off while we stared in wonder. Hearing about him through the entirety of HW didn't really make me care any more than I already did.

I'm just glad that SB brought a few memorable characters that I've actually come to like and started to care about them.

[Iscah]

Personally I hope that the story moves in a GOT mode and kills off all we are attached to - just for a more interesting story. Amnesia is NOT good storytelling .

I feel like the game is already killing off an awful lot of characters over time. Not always major ones, but enough for an overall impression of "lots of people are dying in this story, and nobody is safe".

From memory, up to where I am early in Stormblood:

Edda's side story. The massacre at the Waking Sands - I had been talking with those people at every turn of the story and following their little individual plots build up. Moenbryda. Wilred. Haurchefant. Ysayle. Minfilia - not dead but beyond our reach. Mide from the Alexander quests, likewise. The soldier from the Waring Triad questline. That time we tried to rescue the kobold kid's parents. Papalymo. The attack on the Reach. Yotsuyu forcing villagers to shoot each other for her amusement.

Having more characters die will not make the story better.

(Which is not to say that further specific character deaths won't make good story elements, just that they're not the only way to have an interesting plot. Too many deaths and they start to lose their individual significance.)

Do people still get miserable about spoilers over 2 years old? Come on don't they have some sort of limitation to how old something is before you can complain about spoilers.

New people are still coming in - I'm one of them. I thought the general discussion forum seemed safe because it was where people talked about minor elements like glamour and game mechanics - I've been steering well clear of the lore forum and others that seemed likely to have spoiler discussions.

It might be "old spoilers" but it's still polite to avoid bringing them up in places where new players could be reading it.

[Alleo]

Personally I hope that the story moves in a GOT mode and kills off all we are attached to - just for a more interesting story. Amnesia is NOT good storytelling .

Thanks to GoT people now believe that mindlessly killing of characters is great but imo its not..using only death in stories will just feel cheap after a while..I already dont invest much time in the characters of FF14 anymore (other than those that I already liked from before) because why should I care about someone thats just killed of cheaply later?

Show lots of death in war? Fine, that makes sense and its also fine if we might lose some known NPCs through that. Have a death that pushes the story along in a meaningful way? Fine too. Kill someone just to have a sad scene? Not fine and just the easiest way to right drama in a story..how about a mistake on our side that leaves someone we deeply care for badly wounded for the rest of their life and dealing with the changes in the story. Heck this could be a good way to write out characters without killing them off..SE seems to love killing of characters for the sake of drama or hurt them which have mostly no consequences on the character. (Ysthola for example or even Raubahn) But leaving a character truly wounded for the rest of their life with consequences is seemingly not something they want to right about..maybe because you need to invest in the development of the character and all the people around them which is imo way harder to write than someone dieying and people crying about it. (And suddenly getting their character changed thanks to that)

[FJerome]

I feel like it's being milked now. I suppose I still love the character but I'm really fed up with his death.

Even though he remains my favourite I still think we've gotten far too much stuff for him when we've barely gotten anything for other characters we've lost.

Haven't come across the letter; is that one of the Moogle postman quests? I need to do those.

It was a "Tales from the . . ." story, "Thoughts Unspoken".

Vows Unbroken is also a Haurchefant story, I think he may be the only character to ever be the focus of two of these things (note to the newer players, every single one of these stories is loaded with spoilers).

[Ryaz]

@Alleo: Exactly. Character deaths can be a great tool for growth and helping really push a story forward. However, many times they feel forced or done just for shock value or a cheap emotional moment. It's very rarely done well.

[Iscah]

Even though he remains my favourite I still think we've gotten far too much stuff for him when we've barely gotten anything for other characters we've lost.

I do have to agree on that! While I don't think the focus on him is inherently too much for that storyline, it feels like it's relatively too much compared to how little dedicated focus some other important characters' deaths got.

It was a "Tales from the . . ." story, "Thoughts Unspoken".

Vows Unbroken is also a Haurchefant story, I think he may be the only character to ever be the focus of two of these things (note to the newer players, every single one of these stories is loaded with spoilers).

Ah, thankyou for those links! I stumbled across them ages ago when I'd just started out and I knew they'd be full of spoilers. Now it's time that I can come back and read them. The "Tales from the Calamity" also make some of the 1.0 story clearer - I feel like they should have a better in-game guide to that, for players who never got to experience that part of the story and don't have all the knowledge of events that older players had.

Gives me a couple of answers on character ages as well, which I'd been wondering about. (Francel is 22 and Haurchefant is 28. Minfilia is ~25 and Thancred is five years older. Nanamo is 21.) Also, from Alphinaud's journal, that a few months have passed between fleeing Ul'dah and the visit to Zenith.

Slightly odd thing I noticed though, with character descriptions in those stories - I would say Haurchefant and Estinien have teal-coloured hair, but the stories describe them as silver/white. Colour perception weirdness going on somewhere in there!

(Also had to giggle at a certain character in one of the Calamity stories being described as acting "like a knight of Ishgard" because... yeah, I picked up on the in-game foreshadowing about that - one of the few things I 'saw coming' in this game - and it's funny to see another reference to it thrown in so casually here...)

I'll have to remember to come back and read the Stormblood ones after I've finished that part of the game.

[Linx0r]

@Alleo: Exactly. Character deaths can be a great tool for growth and helping really push a story forward. However, many times they feel forced or done just for shock value or a cheap emotional moment. It's very rarely done well.

I agree and should have elaborated a bit more. Develop characters so we have feelings for them, then have them either stay as part of the family, or plot twist, or kill them off. This is why it worked with Hauch. More of that. All men must die sometime

[Penthea]

SE can we please get the image OP posted as a painting in the game? <3

[Fredco191]

I don't see what was so great about him.

He jumped in front of a beam that the warrior of light probably could of deflected himself and died.
I don't call that being a heroic I call that throwing his life away for absolutely nothing.

I always wonder what would’ve happened if we got hit by it.

[Dualblade]

I always wonder what would’ve happened if we got hit by it.

Well going by Thordan EX the WoL atleast believes it could kill them or com close to it. If I remember right it also gives a healing debuff.