In regards to G'raha Tia in Dawntrail and going forward *MSQ SPOILERS*

[CuteBucket]

I have an alt WoL I ship with a certain character, but please, PLEASE leave the romance aspects to fanworks and keep it out of canon. I love my ship and I actively DON'T want it to actually be in the game (it won't make sense anyway as the character is dead in canon anyway) or have the writers attempt to write content for it--it wouldn't fit the tone of the game at all. I create and consume fanworks of it for myself, I don't need it to be canon, and frankly, I think its super weird to ask the developers to put dating sim elements in an MMORPG. Learn how to find and/or cook your own food. It's fun!

The most I ever want is purely platonic friendship scenes like in Endwalker where we could pick which Scion came to our room. I don't want it to ever go beyond that.

[ApolloGenX]

I dunno, but I would be happy to work with Jonathan Bailey behind the scenes to figure out how romantic it should be....

I love you, Skippy!!

[SteakDriven]

If it affects MSQ, all it should do is change maybe one or two lines of dialogue, and leave it be.

This proposed and hypothetical quest line could explore a more romantic approach with our favorite characters, at least a date and at most establishing an official relationship. It could really delve into what makes the characters tick and how they operate in a romantic setting, and explore what they see in the WoL. G'raha enjoyers can have their taco and eat it too, and the players who don't like the tacocat can enjoy MSQ without him making romantically-charged promises to the WoL.

Hell, Square Enix could find a new purpose for Island Sanctuary and let us invite our romantic interest of choice to the island.

What do you guys think of the gondola scene? Did they go too far with the romantic subtext in Living Memory? Should this be addressed in the future? Do you have other ideas on how this can be addressed?

Boone was thinking "why didn't we bring Shtola" the whole time.

[ConantSivrha]

I’m not into shipping or romantic subplots, personally, but I don’t mind the potential romantic undertones of scenes like this as long as the WoL’s feelings are left ambiguous and open to player interpretation.

Going forward, it would be nice to have some more moments where the player gets to choose which characters they want to spend time with—maybe we could even pick which character will accompany us on our obligatory pointless fetch quests to provide a few lines of commentary. It could also be interesting to have characters’ opinions of and behavior towards the WoL change a bit, based on the choices you make when interacting with them. I think whole questlines focused around the WoL’s romances with NPCs would be a bit too out of place, though. This is more the domain of dating sims, visual novels, and (in this case) fanfiction.

If anything, the game has already gone too far down the route of being primarily text and dialogue-based. Unless my date with G’raha includes a solo duty that will kill me at least once, I’m not going.

[BadAtGames]

OP I'm really happy you posted this, because I had no idea what to think about the G'raha gondola scene. I am a WolGraha crazy person, and in my deluded mind I seriously thought that when he wished to meet someone who had passed, it was going to be a setup about a past romantic love interest. Rationally I was thinking there's no way they would do that right? It'd piss everyone off right? But irrationally I was so disappointed by Dawntrail that I thought well, they pissed everyone off already, they can surely do it again. I was so sad. (and yes I know I'm mentally ill, no need to mention it, I am well aware)

Anyways, after reading this I have a whole new brighter perspective. Why didn't I think of that!? Thank you!!

[TBerry]

G'raha Tia must be protected at all costs, and I sincerely hope that we will have more adventures with him in the future.