Questions about the Warrior of Light's current state [HERE BE SPOILERS YO!]

[SleepyBee]

I think it's good, in a way, that the WoL is becoming a bit more animated in certain scenes but as it's been said, there's a risk of causing a disconnect between the player and their character. The scene with Emm was extremely weird for me because it felt like the first time I wasn't on the same page with my character.

I see my character as being compassionate and understanding, empathetic. What happened with Emm made me feel bad for him, and seeing my character somewhat side with Thancred's hard-assed attitude to the situation felt like a bit of a betrayal. I know that sounds a bit dramatic but hey, that's how it felt.

I'd like our characters to continue being more lively, show more emotion and reaction, but the devs definitely need to be careful with this.

[Lunaxia]

And later when given options to answer Thancred I chose "I help my friends, not a nation", he got all salty at me and told me "poor choice of words."

I initially had the same reaction, but when I read through it again I think Thancred was referring to what he said - he says something along the lines of "will you fight for Ishgard?", and when you tell him you stand for friends and comrades, not nations, he corrects himself, not you.

As for Emannellain, I was quite surprised by the WoL's reaction too, though not completely at odds with it - I understood her annoyance, but also some of what he was feeling. I think the gap between the characters' scorn towards him and the players' feelings about it is due to a difference in cultures than anything else; while we have some sympathy for the character, the Japanese mindset would view his shirking responsibility and being a burden to those around him as incredibly weak and selfish.

[Kallera]

I was looking up some articles on burnout, and began to wonder if SE trying to depict that may be an explanation for the universally aggressive behavior as well.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

It may be possible. Since 2.0, the WOL was always the one to save the day, they are the ones people go to when primals are around since they're immune to being tempered, everyone dumps their problems on the WOL (whether it's political or personal), the WOL is rarely asked for their opinion (not that it matters anyway), and they aren't given a reward beyond a thank you. People like Haurechfant and Alphinaud could be considered as best friends to the WOL since they treated them as a person instead of a political brawler tool.

Sadly, the WOL is never going to get a break since we wouldn't have much of a game then :P

[Shikiseki]

I'm quite happy how our character developed since 3.0, starting with the vault incident. You really could feel that he was really close to us (I mean he was one of the few that picked us up after the Ul'dahn incident in 2.55. I think we can also say for sure that Alphy is probably closest to us so far. While I think Krile will develop to a similar important character like Minfilia was to us, Alphy will stay on top. I guess Thancred got quite a lot of relation points this patch around too.

The only part I didn't understand was his unease when Aymeric asked us for a drink (while he could have still been quite hurt about the Minfilia case, I think it's something else).

I'm bit afraid that we'll run into more direct attacks on us in the future like the sleep poisoning this patch... That sure made us bit more cautious than we used to be...

[Morningstar1337]

The only part I didn't understand was his unease when Aymeric asked us for a drink (while he could have still been quite hurt about the Minfilia case, I think it's something else).

Just in case you forgot, the last 2 times we have drinks with people alone, one intercepted a fatal blow for us and the other became a victim of a Snow-White-style poison and considered dead (hence the unease). Then after Aymeric offer, when we had a drink again it was us that wound up poisoned. Alphinaud at the end of the patch was the only time when we had a drink with someone that didn't wind with either party dead or comatose (yet). At this point, having a drink with someone seems like an event flag for something bad happening.

[Cilia]

I was looking up some articles on burnout, and began to wonder if SE trying to depict that may be an explanation for the universally aggressive behavior as well.

I'm going with PTSD. Aside from it being painfully obvious in the DRK 30-50 line (though it's only made apparent in the 50 quest) that, for all their stoicism, 2.x did take its toll, trauma after trauma has been heaped on them over 3.x - fighting in the Dragonsong War, having Haurchefant die in our arms, watching Ysayle get shot down as Shiva, watching Estinien get possessed by Nidhogg, learning Thancred became magically impaired in his effort to protect us, and finally that Minfilia has (at least for the time being) ceased to exist as an independent entity and they were forced to watch her "shatter into a thousand thousand pieces" after our brief chat with the Word...

To say nothing of facing death and danger on a daily basis.

WoL could use a little therapy at this point, and it's only going to get worse. Hell, all the Scions could, especially Thancred. But, there are no therapists because it's both a medieval setting and a fantasy game.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

WOL's getting sick of your wangst, yo. You know, I think they're becoming like Thancred based on the replies the Vath quests have given me...

[CyrilLucifer]

I agree. To me it seems like a pretty clear cut case of PTSD. Even discounting the DRK quest, we have Ul'dah's events, made even more severe now that we know exactly what happened to Minfilia when she ran, after calling you 'hope.'

People have started dying for you, not just your cause like with Moenbryda, you. Minfilia. Haurchefant. Ysayle. We didn't even have time to grieve for the latter two, instead being required to put our stoic face on and keep trucking.

What I thought was interesting was that during the scene with Alphinauda, you're shown a picture of your memories with Ysayle and Est as well, showing you miss them just as much.

Basically, we have problems. They aren't going to be fixed any time soon, either. Even if the Scions tried to throw a party for us make us feel better, we'd still be the one forced out to get the food and tools to prepare it.

And yes, Pick up the damn rocks was hilarious.

[Khalithar]

Snip

I just hit that quest a moment ago, I laughed pretty hard at the second option and of course picked it.