What lore do you ignore?

[ThorneDynasty]

I admit I'm rarely able to pick up on romantic/sexual subtext unless it's shouted at me (and I usually hate it when they do that), but I never got this idea. I always thought it was a pretty clear superior-subordinate relationship with an element of uneven emotional investment; Livia clearly has stronger feelings towards Gaius than Gaius had towards her, but even they weren't sexual. I never caught a single hint of sexuality from either of them... honestly, ever, that corner of the story is remarkably sexless compared to a few others.

The only evidence I see people bring up was when Gaius went 'see me in my quarters', and apparently to some people that implied sex. But I thought it was pretty clear that he was just taking her to a private location so he can chew her out for screwing up without getting overheard.

She also screams "his body and soul" belong to her. Not a super normal thought to have towards a parental figure.

Also fiction always has a reason to include everything. There's no reason to interject a scene where someone orders a subordinate to cross a professional line, such as meeting him alone in his quarters, if there's no subtext. And if it meant something else, they would have clarified that too, in that or a later scene. Instead later she says that.

[Cilia]

She also screams "his body and soul" belong to her. Not a super normal thought to have towards a parental figure.

Also fiction always has a reason to include everything. There's no reason to interject a scene where someone orders a subordinate to cross a professional line, such as meeting him alone in his quarters, if there's no subtext. And if it meant something else, they would have clarified that too, in that or a later scene. Instead later she says that.

The appropriate "subtext" requires a little bit of context; in a military setting, you never reprimand an officer in front of the soldiers they command because doing so could undermine their authority among the troops. With that context in mind, I always read the scene as Gaius going to chew Livia out for the Waking Sands massacre - the only officers higher in rank to Livia are Nero and Gaius himself, so he can't exactly discipline her in the open (and based on her dialogue with Nero after the Ifrit fight, she doesn't much respect him anyway).

To Gaius, Livia was just another orphan whose potential he could exploit in the pursuit of his conquest; Livia is possessive of Gaius because he's the only thing that gives her life meaning. There's definitely some unhealthy romantic (and plausibly sexual) obsession there, but it's entirely one-sided on Livia's part (which was confirmed by the Sorrow of Werlyt storyline).

[ThorneDynasty]

The appropriate "subtext" requires a little bit of context; in a military setting, you never reprimand an officer in front of the soldiers they command because doing so could undermine their authority among the troops. With that context in mind, I always read the scene as Gaius going to chew Livia out for the Waking Sands massacre - the only officers higher in rank to Livia are Nero and Gaius himself, so he can't exactly discipline her in the open (and based on her dialogue with Nero after the Ifrit fight, she doesn't much respect him anyway).

To Gaius, Livia was just another orphan whose potential he could exploit in the pursuit of his conquest; Livia is possessive of Gaius because he's the only thing that gives her life meaning. There's definitely some unhealthy romantic (and plausibly sexual) obsession there, but it's entirely one-sided on Livia's part (which was confirmed by the Sorrow of Werlyt storyline).

Which I pointed out is a blatant retcon. It's fiction with writers, not a document of events.

[Cleretic]

Which I pointed out is a blatant retcon. It's fiction with writers, not a document of events.

Outside of a single parenthetical, Cilia only outlined facts that were slapped down by ARR. They can't be retcons, because they're how the story was originally. Cilia's exactly right; there is a raw, organizational reason that Gaius does the thing he does, and that reason is not 'sex'. Livia's weird feelings towards him are ugly and terrible, but even back in ARR there was never a single word of a hint that they were requited.

It's something I don't think XIV will ever go into but it'd be the perfect excuse for a gender dysphoria story, as a Viera believing their whole life they were one sex just for puberty to hit them with the other one. However, this sounds too... complicated that I don't think CBU3 will attempt to try.

There's a few really interesting angles you could take with a story about gender dysphoria around the game's various races, because they have often have societies structured based on really specific gender roles. Off the top of my head I could see some solid exploration of societal roles and treatment of gender coming from the hrothgar or miqo'te, while the extreme sexual dimprohism of the au ra makes them a great way to explore bodily dysphoria. And on the flipside, the lalafel's near-total lack of sexual dimorphism could provide some interesting grounding for, say, a genderfluid or non-binary character; 'if there is no meaningful difference, what reason would anybody have to care?'

[Cilia]

Which I pointed out is a blatant retcon. It's fiction with writers, not a document of events.

Is it really a retcon though? The order in question is literally the only thing Gaius ever directly says to Livia. His view of her was never clear until Werlyt, because the reality is they barely interacted in A Realm Reborn.

In my opinion interpreting the order as a booty call comes entirely from a lack of understanding military culture and people having their minds in the gutter.

... but I can't tell people what and what not to believe.

[ThorneDynasty]

Is it really a retcon though? The order in question is literally the only thing Gaius ever directly says to Livia. His view of her was never clear until Werlyt, because the reality is they barely interacted in A Realm Reborn.

In my opinion interpreting the order as a booty call comes entirely from a lack of understanding military culture and people having their minds in the gutter.

... but I can't tell people what and what not to believe.

Which only makes the few times they depict their interactions more significant and representative of their relationship. Again, nothing in fiction is coincidental.

[Vyrerus]

The appropriate "subtext"

Having served myself, real world reprimands generally take place in an official office, generally not in a personal quarters. And unless you're being made to wait as part of the punishment, it generally doesn't take an hour, let alone an hour within the office where you're being reprimanded.

That stated, the Garlean Empire was not above reprimanding officers in front of others as shown by Zenos killing an officer in front of his other officers, including Fordola, at the start of Stormblood. It's also unusual to have the villains in a story actually care about morale of their subordinates. There's also the example of him hurting and belittling Yotsuyu in front of Grynewaht.

Of course, we'd need the two sentences in other languages to see if it carries across translation, or if it's an EN thing.

In the end, it was more for Livia's character arc than for Gaius's, as back in ARR they did not have any intentions on having either of them live past 2.0. Changing Gaius's reciprocation is an easy retcon having everything to do with humanizing Gaius for the Werlyt arc. Which honestly just makes ARR Gaius weirder, since he doesn't even mention Livia's death at all in Praetorium and such. With how much he's shown to care about Alfonse and the other adoptees, this weirdness does not go away. (Like I mean, seriously, the WoL directly killed one of his protege's, how does that not bother him enough to even mention it?)

It's all just sort of handled clumsily with a passing acknowledgment and shooed out of the story asap.