Tales from the Shadows

[Anonymoose]

It has begun!

2019-08-27 One Name, One Promise (Thancred)

I appreciate that it manages to just narrowly avoid re-treading over stuff we knew by filling in the gaps around those things. We already had an adequate explanation for Thancred's sense of responsibility for Minfilia; that if it weren't for that he was distracted at the parade, he might have seen things going sideways in time to save her father. However, the common thread of this story gives us a more complex view: he could also live up to Louisoix's example by helping an orphaned child live up to their potential. And to boot he's clearly quietly fantasizing about playing house with F'lhaminn while looking after her. I like that (just as ARR+ made him a more complex character in general) this story tidied up his past to match. Bonus points for putting one last nail in the coffin of Thancred x Minfilia as a ship.

2019-09-03 Echoes of Delusion (Estinien)

Even though it was a throw-away explainer line, I think the first thought everyone had when Estinien quipped that he was tracked down by the pair was, "I need to know exactly how that happened," so this tale probably made a few days, lol. We don't learn much in the way of lore, of course, but it's still nice to see their characters from this angle - Estinien still bumbling through trying to function as anything other than the Azure Dragoon. For those that struggle to see Estinien through Yoshida's eyes as a distant quasi-Scion, perhaps seeing him awkwardly dragged into others' affairs and trying to make the best of it helps. (I wonder if the surume addiction will hold or if he'll find a new horizon to pretend he's not broadening every time he ends up somewhere.) I had a suspicion that Krile didn't actually see anything and was just playing to his disguised insecurities but I didn't expect it to be confirmed in the end, lol. (That's not usually how the Echo works; Echo users tend to pick up on specific powerful memories that people are thinking about at that moment.)

2019-09-10 A World Forsaken (OMG)

"Omega had a secret epiphany at the end and is clandestinely living anew from scratch within OMG" is one of the silliest headcanons I've embraced (and I've found that a number of people have independently had the same idea)...so I started laughing as soon as I saw the word "Objective:" and had almost lost it by the time I read "yellow-plumed creature." The Wedge scene was surprisingly sweet; I knew he had a crush on Tataru, but I thought it was just another of his eccentricities like taking a shine to Maggie (Magitek Reaper) and Gilly (Guidance Node). Saving the reveal that Nero was there until the end was a great decision; I spent the whole read wondering if he stayed or went. The fact that the perspective is just...slightly...more human than one would have expected of Omega prior to its defeat is really satisfying, too. Confirmation of "alternate reality" time travel makes me grind my teeth a bit, though. Here's hoping it's just shoudn't-have-been-possible spatio-temporal "twinning" and not confirmation of infinite simultaneously existing variations of history.

2019-09-16 Through His Eyes (Hades)

You know, at the same time, I thought, "One of the stories has to be him." and "There's no way." We can perhaps learn a fair amount from this story. Let's weave it all together. In the time of Amaurot, there was indeed one race, one people. Amaurot was the largest city of its day, but not the only city by any means. They had no belief in a higher power beyond a vague notion that the aetherial realm was an unknowable "Underworld." The shades woven by Emet-Selch aren't completely accurate; the robes are black, the masks are white, the Convocation's masks truly were red, but each individual was as unique as they are today. Some of the Ancients had a strong affinity for "the Underworld" and could see the aetherial nature of things clearly. Hythlodaeus and Hades were particularly gifted in this, but the former, while stronger with the gift, was not suited to using it for anything practical and thus refused the first offer of the Convocation to take the office of the Emet-Selch. Whoever the Warrior of Light was in those days, Hythlodaeus felt this mutual friend should have been one of the first people to learn of Hades's appointment.

Souls, we learn, cannot be made - even by the Ancients. Life-aether can form quasi-souls (arcane entities), but no more. Souls spontaneously manifest in things that are born in accordance with the laws of nature (and also Alpha, apparently). They considered this a "gift from the planet."

Somehow, a wandering soul (afraid of death / bound to this side by regret) merged with a phoenix (arcane entity; purely aetherial) brought into being via creation magicks. To deal with this situation and unmake the creature required the best mage available, and Hades was able to transform himself (by bringing aether within to himself)into something massive "like a shadow lengthening" to do so. (Other attempts would merely have caused it unnecessary pain and triggered its regeneration.)

The finale gives us a bit of a glimpse into how House Galvus came to behave as they do. We see a scene around 1550. Emet-Selch is well into his life as Solus zos Galvus and already feeling the effects of aging around 61. Think about where each of them are at the moment:

Solus decided to embody an emperor and take a wife, neither of whom were very imposing despite the Garlean race typically having formidable bodies. And then they had a son, and for a moment Emet-Selch had a strange sense of hope he couldn't identity. As the boy grew, he seemed to be a perfect specimen - the envy of all their peers. And then some common malady struck him down at a young age and validated Emet-Selch's assessment of life as it now was. And yet that man had also left behind a son, an ever-continuing bloodline mocking Solus's brief moment of hope. On the other side is Varis, a 19-year-old without a father eager to win the acceptance and pride of a grandfather who will never see him as anything but the above.

Explains a lot.