Valentines day event fail

[Ammokkx]

Good ol' East/West mentality divide. Cases like Haurchefant were changed out of precaution. No such precaution was taken here, and look at the forums go.

I'm out of the loop here, what happened with Haurchefant?

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

You're correct in that it's terrible, though a lot of forms of Japanese media (be it movies, video-games or anime) do indeed push the idea of emotional and/or physical abuse being directed at men as something that is hilarious. In this case it's particularly unsettling as Ywain is a serious character and someone who has taught the Warrior of Light valuable techniques that led to the very world itself being spared from destruction.

He's certainly deserving of being treated with more dignity. Worse yet, the protagonists in this game spend a significant amount of their time lecturing others about what is 'right' and 'wrong' only for something like this to be implemented...with absolutely no in-universe backlash whatsoever.

It's kind of an unfortunate combination of jokes.

Marcette has been a questgiver since 1.0, so she has something of a reputation of being a terror and somehow gets away with being horrible in-universe. Either her first (or second) quest that she gives to the Warrior of Light involves having them collect some spore samples from a fungus that could potentially take over their body and kill them. Which she doesn't inform them of until after the fact.

Marcette: The spore sacs you supplied provide indisputable evidence in favor of my theory! You see, the spores they contain are identical to those which infested the brains of those poor gnats and puks I killed!

Marcette: Ah, yes, it seems I forgot to recommend that you keep your mouth covered, and your nose, ears, and...so on, suitably plugged while slaying these beasts. Yes, well...er...sorry about that! I'm sure there isn't a spore nesting down in your brain even as we speak. Quite sure, yes.

Marcette: Well, you appear to be right as the rain for the time being! A good sign, I should think. Anyway, here is payment for your services─and your silence. No doubt the Gridanians would not take kindly to our slaying forest denizens without proper leave. Should you ever feel guilty about what you've done, just remember this─science! Oh, and should you ever feel unaccountably drawn to humid regions... Er, forget I mentioned it. Science!

2.0 gives her similar quests in Central Shroud, complete with a guy who continually begs you to save him from her whenever you chat with him, if I'm not mistaken. One of her quests involves having you kill one of those huge Morbols over by Haukke Manor for its stomach, after which point she basically calls you useless and refuses to thank you. The next quest involves collecting some fungus, after which she immediately forgets you did anything for her. And then comes her final quest to collect a Lightning Sprite...

Marcette: Research Assistant Six. Yes, I am speaking to you, Research Assistant Six─that is the title I have deigned to bestow upon you after your humble contribution to my latest scientific breakthrough.

Marcette: Mind you, now that you are officially my slave─er, research assistant─there will be no slacking off. I require a live lightning spark. Here is a jar. Now hurry─I haven't all day!

-The Warrior of Light captures the sprite.-

Marcette: The mere fact that you dare to interrupt me means that you must have the live lightning spark I require. Well, hand it over, then!

Marcette: Oooh, aren't you a cute little one!? Just think of all the fun I can have with you! The next assistant who dares shirk his/her duties is in for quite a shock! Muahahaha!!!

Eventually, a Postmoogle quest was added for her and the Moogle is absolutely terrified at the prospect of delivering a letter to her, having you go in his stead. What follows is a quest wherein she threatens both you and another assistant (Hobriaut) with bodily harm multiple times while insulting you. The quest ends with her tormenting a live mole as well, purportedly in the name of science.

She also has an acquaintance, Atelloune, in the Stormblood Leatherworker questline. I believe she's name-dropped for the first time in the Postmoogle sidequest, but she may have been mentioned earlier. At any rate, while she is initially set up to seem like a terrible person by virtue of being said to be an acquaintance of Marcette's, the rug pulled from under you when Atelloune is revealed to actually be a pretty decent person who actually treats you with respect and never really throws you into dangerous/potentially life-threatening situations.

Marcette also cheats at Triple Triad, incidentally. And, I mean, most NPCs do, but it's still worth noting as a black mark against her!

My point is that when you see Marcette in the Valentione's quest, the message is less "It's okay for Marcette to treat Ywain like this" and more "Oh Lord, not her; Astrid, please reconsider", with the gag being that Ywain has no idea what horrible situation he's getting himself into. Unfortunately, without the benefit of knowing Marcette in advance and/or the fact that this is supposed to be an event where you're trying to match Ywain with his ideal partner based on the outcome of a vote, it can come across more uncomfortably than the writers probably intended! It's kinda like the whole "Rowena keeps Gerolt in eternal servitude" thing all over again.

[NessaWyvern]

I chose Rodrigault and I am happy knowing it was ultimately the best choice for a real chance at love. He would have lead Ywain to someone who could have legitimately helped him. Instead Ywain becomes a victim. Great Job SE. You're perpetuating stereotypes and advocating male relationship abuse for a laugh..

Astrid's idea was TERRIBLE. How is this acceptable? How did this pass QA? (emphasis mine)

Oh gods, that is truly terrible.
I come from a country that has a serious problem with domestic abuse, (and has been a serious problem in my extended family) and I actually feel physically sick reading it. I know it's just a game, but poor Ywain.

[Mahrze]

Bad humor is bad.

[Britha]

Honestly we should have been able to see all three of their suggestions in action and THEN vote for the "winner". That way everyone can see everything in this event and still vote for their favorite.

[Ammokkx]

Honestly, my problem with how the event ended isn't that Astrid won by a landslide across all servers for whatever reason, or the fact that Lisette still shows immense bias to her.

It's that all three of the quest's endings, quite frankly, suck.

All three wind up with Ywain the butt of a joke and the emissaries both failing in executing on their advice, as well as failing to find him an actual solution. Sure, there's an argument one would've gotten closer than the other, but it ends up remaining a fact that the guy wasn't really helped in the end. There's even an argument to be made that any one of the outcomes made his situation worse.

And this would be fine if Lisette then turned around and actually reprimanded the supposed Emissary of Love for it and decided to hoist it all on her own shoulders for the year regardless, but she doesn't. She pretends everything's fine when it's clearly not, and she gives the title to someone undeserving regardless. Sure, the nepotism argument makes some sense for Astrid, but not the other two, and even then, they didn't go hard enough on the comedy factor for it to really count in Astrid's route.

I just wanted an actual resolution to the event, regardless of who won. This really wasn't it, in my opinion.

[KraDawn]

I liked the conclusion to the event. I agree Astrid choice was bad, but she is very young so I was hoping she would make a mistake and learn from it...which you know was a somewhat of a success since he is now an unwilling researchers assistance to Marcette. Who knows what will happen next, I’m hoping maybe they’ll bring them back next year for love council or at least get Marcette to open up to Ywain.

[Allegor]

I'm out of the loop here, what happened with Haurchefant?

He was t h i r s t y for the WoL

[Ammokkx]

He was t h i r s t y for the WoL

I looked it up and... my god...

...that's absolutely hilarious. I'm sad they changed that, the man's bold and knows what he wants.

[SingleMaltFan]

I'm glad the quest text for Astrid's result is available:

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Astrid%27s_Acumen

Now I don't have to endure the quest itself.

This is not cool, SE. Playing abuse for laughs and even hinting that men LIKE to be abused is over the line. Reverse the genders and this would never have seen the light of day.

If you think I'm taking this too seriously because it's "just a game," then fine. You're entitled to your opinion. For me, I refuse to even complete the quest.