Revelations from Dawntrail (7.0)

[Iscah]

Level 94, just had a scene at what is clearly going to be the level 95 dungeon entrance.

If you'd told me yesterday that the character who would have me reaching for the tissues was Bakool freaking Ja Ja I don't think I would have believed you.

My character was being disappointingly non-compassionate in the moment though. I think Wuk Lamat is stealing my (hypothetical) lines.


On a separate note I peeked ahead at the dungeon gear now that I know the location, and of course it's recoloured Ronkan gear, just like the concept art for the dungeon was immediately drawing on Ronka.

With some more examples to go on, the Mamool Ja names seem to have a clear divide between genders with the male names having a double vowel in the second half of the name and the female names having the double in the first half. I'll need to look into the Japanese spellings though, because there seems to bee an inconsistency of vowels - Sareel Ja sound more like "Sarell Ja" and the high priest guy gets the same "ee" spelling and short "e" pronunciation, but Bakool has the English-pronunciation "ooh" sound as if it was Japanese "u".

Also I had the random thought that it feels like a missed opportunity that the blessed siblings' individual heads don't get just a single Ja when being referred to individually. It would make sense if it was Bakool Ja the Mighty and Bakool Ja the Mystic, and only Bakool Ja Ja when being treated as a single entity.

[Cleretic]

Level 94, just had a scene at what is clearly going to be the level 95 dungeon entrance.

My character was being disappointingly non-compassionate in the moment though. I think Wuk Lamat is stealing my (hypothetical) lines.

This particular element of this particular scene was the first thing to really nail down that this expansion was being written differently than everything before it.

We're not really 'non-compassionate' to Bakool Ja Ja; we're actually very sympathetic and considerate... just not to the point of absolution. The story is very clear that just because he feels bad and wants things to be better, doesn't mean that he is better; he has to walk the walk, be the better person that he hasn't been so far.

I actually think that's a very reasonable outlook to have; someone has to earn their redemption. It's just that most of the game thus far hasn't really taken that angle, we've always been extremely forgiving to people who didn't really do anything to deserve it beyond 'look sad about things'--even though many of their crimes were actually worse than Bakool's. I think it's a reflection of the new lead writer, because the other character that I can think of that got that same 'they've got a point but that doesn't make them a good person' reaction was Misija in Bozja.

[Iscah]

This particular element of this particular scene was the first thing to really nail down that this expansion was being written differently than everything before it.

We're not really 'non-compassionate' to Bakool Ja Ja; we're actually very sympathetic and considerate... just not to the point of absolution. The story is very clear that just because he feels bad and wants things to be better, doesn't mean that he is better; he has to walk the walk, be the better person that he hasn't been so far.

I actually think that's a very reasonable outlook to have; someone has to earn their redemption. It's just that most of the game thus far hasn't really taken that angle, we've always been extremely forgiving to people who didn't really do anything to deserve it beyond 'look sad about things'--even though many of their crimes were actually worse than Bakool's. I think it's a reflection of the new lead writer, because the other character that I can think of that got that same 'they've got a point but that doesn't make them a good person' reaction was Misija in Bozja.

I get all that.

Still, just a little more "deep compassion now and we'll lecture him (them, both of him) about the bad stuff later" is the option I was looking for in that moment. When I'm there crying myself, both scripted options for our first response felt a little too harsh.

In other circumstances they'd give us more scope to choose different emotions and have another character speak up with the other view if we don't choose the point that the writer wants to make, but maybe that's about it being a voiced cutscene and preferring all the options to lead to the same response.

On a separate note I'm still confused about how he/they function as one person. Sometimes they're "we", but then during the emotional bit it's the Mighty doing all the talking and using "I" pronouns. Do we take that to be him talking on behalf of both heads? Or do we need to suspect that the Mystic is potentially harbouring other thoughts on the subject? (Don't answer that.) Have they got a twins telepathy thing going on or do they have to talk to each other? I guess we can assume they can choose who's controlling the body, since Gulool Ja Ja can fight a duel while his other head sleeps.

Also, a prediction: I'm guessing that the Feat of Brotherhood isn't actually achieved by defeating phantom Gulool Ja Ja but by refusing to fight him.