Tales from the Storm Discussion

[Mysterysword]

Alisaie literally argues with Alphinaud on why he should stay in Kugane in the MSQ. As for why he comes to Namei, Alisaie comments on it if you talk to her when you first visit the Doman Revolutionary Front. Alphinaud is an organiser and planner. Once we had established contact his skills became necessary.

Seemed like a pretty unimportant lie, particularly since she gives her reasons for it. Are you saying the WoL wasn't a friend of 'Yda' prior to the reveal? Its the same person. Its not like she suddenly became someone else.

You're missing my point. I'm asking how and why exactly, in-story, Alphinaud came to Namai. Did we call him? Nobody ever mentions contacting him, he just springs up directly after we tried to assassinate Zenos. What made him decide to leave Kugane and come after us in the first place? The writers don't even bother to explain any of that. The reasons behind why Alphinaud stayed behind might have been more convincing if, again, he actually did anything while in Kugane that was worth mentioning later on. When Tataru stayed behind in Ishgard, back in 3.0, her actions during that time had a direct and meaningful impact on the plot, later on, with the information she gathered and the connections she made. They tried to give the same explanation for Alphinaud, but failed to provide any consequences for him staying behind, making it all look like a lazy reason to not have him along for the Ruby Sea Ride.

Also, I really do not understand how lying about your identity is an 'unimportant lie'. Maybe it's the same person, but she was still lying to us, which is generally not something that friends are supposed to do. I never said the WoL wasn't friends with Yda, but if they were friends, it'd be pretty crappy of Lyse to knowingly and directly lie to the WoL's face for however long they've known each other.

And going on from that, I'd love to see more personal consequences for Lyse masquerading as Yda for so long. Surely Yda had more friends outside of the Scions. What if one of the people who'd known her personally before her death, came to see her and found out that Lyse had been pretending to be her for over half a decade? "Upset" wouldn't even begin to describe my reaction to that if I were in that person's shoes.

[BlakeWolfe]

Actually, when talking to Alisae inside the House of the Fierce she mentions they could repair the aetheryte crystal there, but that'd be more Alphinaud's field and she'd contact him about it.

[YianKutku]

On the one hand, Lyse pretending to be Yda for several years is deeply unhealthy and probably the sort of thing that should have been handled by some sort of emotional support network.

On the other hand, we've long established that the Scions in general are really stupid when it comes to handling mental and emotional trauma. Their default response is "we'll just work harder to take our minds off it". Their non-default responses are even worse. (What was the reasoning given behind Urianger's creation of the Wind-Up Moenbryda minion?)

So while it should be a major deal in our RL context, it is sadly completely in-character for the Scions, Lyse, and everyone involved.

[Alleo]

I agree that lying to us if we are somehow friends is not great but I never saw her as a friend anyway thus the whole reveal kinda was like "...so whats the point?" SE missed making me care more about Papalymo or Yda since they were not that much in the story before SB.

After thinking more about the new story I am kinda not sure why they choose that one. We only have four of them and lots of people that they could have written about. They could have used that scene ingame. I mean we more than enough had scenes where the WoL was not there yet we got to see them so they could have used it that way to show us their talk and after that we could have a small scene with the WoL joining them. I mean the story itself is really cute in a way and nice to just see them relaxing a bit but still I now agree with some posters: We learned nothing new other than just some shipping rumors.

[Haprimac]

I'm actually glad if this scene doesn't make it ingame. Feels way too fanfiction-y. (Is it just me or do those screenshots look very lazily made, too? Like... I could make more interesting screenshots with image editing...)

[Belhi]

Not every story or every snippet has to hold important or new information. Rather, if your world building you want the opposite occasionally. It creates a sense of normality and immersion. This is why the Postmoogle quests are some of my favorate. Plenty of them have unimportant or trivial lore and often its not particularly new but it presents characters and situations on a small scale that makes the world at large feel more alive.

We almost never see the Scions in a situation where they aren't working. That is part of what I like about this. Its one of the few times we see important central characters kick back and let their hair down and just chat. As characters it makes them more like people living in a world and less like just plot devices.

In truth, these short stories have never given us a great deal of new information. Most have just been moments in characters lives that help show another view of the character or event.

[YianKutku]

I actually really like stories which explore what characters do in their downtime, like this one. No major revelations, no unexpected twists, no explosive action. Just people talking to each other, being people.

I mean, I recall one of the more popular reveals from the lorebook was that Aymeric liked birch syrup in his morning tea. Close behind was the fact that Aymeric tried teaching Lucia his original recipe for dodo omelettes, but Lucia still has no interest in cooking.

Nothing there is relevant to the story. There is no hidden meaning behind the dodo omelettes. But such pieces of trivia are still popular, because they are one more tidbit in favour of these characters being people, rather than plot devices.

The Scions having a day out at a cake patisserie and spending their time gossiping is exactly the sort of thing I want. I do understand the concerns, since we don't have an unlimited number of story slots to tell all the stories that need telling. But I try to think of these stories as bonuses, rather than limited offerings. And if I were to get bonuses, I'd be happy with stories such as these, with nothing but idle chatter.

[Mysterysword]

I actually really like stories which explore what characters do in their downtime, like this one. No major revelations, no unexpected twists, no explosive action. Just people talking to each other, being people.

I can let go of the fact that this one was mainly banal conversation, but... did it have to be a bunch of girls talking about the men in their lives? Don't they honestly have any other topic to talk about? How about having Alisaie complain about Tataru not giving her pants, in Ishgard, no less? Have Lyse raise concerns that Tataru forgot her shirt. Anything that could've let us pass the Bechdel test on this one.

Because FF XIV's female characters have honestly not been treated very well, and I would like to kind of see that maybe change a little.

[FJerome]

I can let go of the fact that this one was mainly banal conversation, but... did it have to be a bunch of girls talking about the men in their lives? Don't they honestly have any other topic to talk about? How about having Alisaie complain about Tataru not giving her pants, in Ishgard, no less? Have Lyse raise concerns that Tataru forgot her shirt. Anything that could've let us pass the Bechdel test on this one.

The Bechdel Test doesn't require women to never, ever discuss men ever. Just that they discuss other things besides men, which they do pretty much everywhere else but here. This story doesn't exist in a vacuum.

(Besides, this does pass it. They discuss Lyse's work rebuilding Ala Mhigo and they discuss Alisaie trying to live up to the WoL, who in a lot of play-throughs is a woman.)

[Mysterysword]

snip

The Bechdel Test, at its most basic, requires at least 2 women to have one single conversation that does not mention a man. That is it at its core. This story doesn't pass it. It is one continuous conversation that keeps leading back to a topic concerning a man. Lyse's work ends up involving a man. The WoL being male or female doesn't count.